World Medals, Austria, Alois Weishut (1853-1920), 25th anniversary as Director of the Austrian Electricity Company [Österreichischen Elektrizitätsgesellschaft], large and almost square bronze plaque or maquette, 1912, by Hans Schæfer (1875-1933), the three-quarter length seated figure of Weishut to left, holding a cigarette, the dates 1887/1912, in square, top left, named below, DIRECTOR ALOIS WEISHUT, 80 x 75cm. (BDM.VIII, 190), the numerals in the dates giving a hint of the successionist style, much as made
Ex Baldwin's vault
Hans Schæfer, sculptor and medallist, was born in Sternberg, Moravia, and worked in Vienna until after the First World War when he emigrated to the USA in 1919, settling in Chicago. Schæfer's work drew praise from Forrer who, in BDM, writes that he succeeded in 'giving life-like portraits, which at the same time show a delicacy of manipulation and surety of delineation which prove that the artist possesses a true understanding of his subject'. The present piece is also found as a smaller plaquette, 75 x 80.5mm.