(Graz 1888–1949 New York)
“Kardinal Jean Verdier-Erzbischof von Paris”,1937, first study for the oil painting which was destroyed (burnt) in 1948, signed W. Thöny, oil on canvas, 25.4 x 19.6 cm, framed

Christa Steinle/Günther Holler-Schuster, Wilhelm Thöny, Im Sog der Moderne, Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz 2012, catalogue raisonné no. 343 with small ill., full-page colour ill. plate 160
Wieland Schmied, Wilhelm Thöny-Porträt eines Einzelgängers, published by Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1976, full-page colour ill. plate 49

Exhibited and published:
Wilhelm Thöny, Aus dem Nachlass, Kunstverein München,1959, cat. no. 49;
W. Thöny 1888–1949, Gemälde und Graphik, Gedächtnisausstellung aus Anlass der 80. Wiederkehr seines Geburtstages, neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, 1968, cat. no. 36, with ill;
Moderne in dunkler Zeit, Widerstand, Verfolgung und Exil steirischer Künstlerinnen und Künstler 1933–1945, Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum Graz, Droschl Verlag 2001, ill. p. 481

Provenance:
Galerie Welz, Salzburg, 1977
Collection Heinrich Lill (1918 – 2004), Vienna
His sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 31 May 2005, lot M41
Private Collection, Vienna

Wilhelm Thöny received a portrait commission from the Austrian embassy in Paris in 1935. He was to produce a painting of the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Jean Verdier.
Archbishop Cardinal Jean Verdier was ordained as archbishop on 29 December 1929. He represented the Pope as his legate both at home and abroad on numerous occasions, and was highly regarded in French political circles. Austrian independence was an important issue for him, and one which he fought for within the Church. He was decisively opposed to national socialism and called for “social peace, for which all political interests and preferences should be sacrificed.”
Das Porträt des Pariser Erzbischofs Kardinal Verdier, Ein Schlüselwerk österreichischer Kulturpolitik im Ständestaat pp. 262-276 in: Wilhelm Thöny, Im Sog der Moderne, Neue Galerie Graz, Universalmuseum Joanneum

Many studies were produced, which Thöny created in a few short sittings.
In 1937, Thöny won a gold medal and certificate as the exhibitor for the Austrian division from an international judging panel for the oil painting of Achbishop Cardinal Jean Verdier (see ill. p. 420 in the aforementioned literature), shortly before he emigrated to New York with his wife in March 1938. In 1948 this work was lost in a fire, along with other important landscape and cityscape paintings.
The study illustrated here depicts the spiritual dignitary with mitre in front view, to the left behind him the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris before a blue-green background.