Description

Set of 11 watercoloured pen and pencil drawings on thick paper, with pencil annotations on the back (10 sheets: 14 x 9 cm, 1 sheet: 16 x 9 cm), inserted in a folded letter paper with “Kriegspatenschaft” sign and coat of arms, dated 1917 (Very Good, some sheets slightly age-toned with light foxing).

A well-executed set of 11 drawings, shows high-ranking officers of the Austrian army during WWI in their uniforms. The drawings mock in non-offending way the facial features as well of the exaggerated lines of uniforms, especially the derrieres of the officers.

Names on the back name the officers: Scholz, Czermak, Gellinek, Krušina, Longardt, Adamkiewicz, Suppan, Zalzar, Erbach, Zartke and Hofmann, and MacNevin. 

The drawings were preserved in a letterhead of Kriegspatenschaft, dated 1917. This was an organisation, run by a high society ladies during WWI, to gather funds for children during WWI in Austria. 

This accompanying letterhead and the selection of the officers on the portrats would place the artist in the upper class of the WWI Austran society.