68 - Robert Philippi* (Graz 1877 - 1959 Vienna)

Robert Philippi* (Graz 1877 - 1959 Vienna) Foolish virgin woodcut/paper 25,5 x 20 cm signed Philippi monogrammed in plate RPH SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE °€ 40 - 80 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE °€ 40 The Austrian painter Robert Philippi received his initial artistic training from the theater painter Robert Kautsky and at the private Streblow School of Painting in Vienna. From 1893 to 1896, he studied at the Vienna Academy under Christian Griepenkerl and Josef Mathias Trenkwald; later, he attended the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, studying under Felician Myrbach and Alfred Roller. There, in 1914–15 and again from 1917 to 1920, he served as an assistant to Franz Čížek, whose reformist pedagogical approach to drawing and free expression was a formative influence. A connection to the Weimar Bauhaus is considered likely, given that Philippi was represented by a woodcut in the *Studierende des Bauhauses* (Bauhaus Students) portfolio published in 1919. After early work in drawing and woodcut, Philippi increasingly turned to painting from 1925 onwards. Influenced by Gustav Klimt, he developed a distinctive visual language characterized by decorative, two-dimensional forms—a style situated somewhere between the Vienna Secession, the applied arts, and the modern movements of the early 20th century. From 1920 to 1925, he was a member of the Hagenbund, an association that established itself as a significant, progressive alternative to the conservative Künstlerhaus in Vienna and increasingly embraced modern, post-Expressionist, and New Objectivity (*Neue Sachlichkeit*) tendencies during the 1920s. As a native of Graz, Philippi also maintained ties to the Styrian Modernist movement and the Graz Art Association (*Grazer Kunstverein*). His paintings—particularly his portraits and cityscapes of Graz—combine precise observation of people and the urban environment with a sense of decorative order and atmospheric use of color. The *Landeslehranstalt Graz* (Graz State School) also played a role in this context as a place of training and artistic engagement. Artists such as Ferdinand Schmutzer, Anton Josef Trčka, Carry Hauser, and Max Oppenheimer serve as important points of comparison for the Austrian art of the period: across various media and stylistic approaches, they represent the development of graphic art, photography, portraiture, and expressive modernism. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.