(Vienna 1844–1926 Grafenegg)
“October”, titled and inscribed on an old label on the reverse, signed O. Wisinger-Florian, oil on panel, 65 x 49 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private Collection Austria,
Dorotheum, Wien, 27 May 1998, lot 53,
Private Collection Austria.

We are grateful to Dr. Alexander Giese for kindly confirming the authenticity on the basis of the original.

This lot celebrates the culmination of autumn with its bright red rosehips and berries, colourful foliage and the cool violet shades of autumn crocuses. On the reverse, it bears a vignette inscribed by the artist herself: ‘October, Ölgemälde von O. Wisinger-Florian, IV. Wien, verkäuflich’. The fact that it is titled with the name of the month of ‘October’ aligns the work with the well-known ‘month paintings’, a cycle of eleven panel paintings which Wisinger-Florian created between 1890 and 1892. The compositions are based on her famous wildflower pieces and are characterised by the close-up depiction of the subject in question. The changing of the seasons can be seen in this cycle of images via the flowers that are typical of the month in question: from snow roses to cherry blossoms, lilac and roses through to golden ears of corn, thistles and rosehips, circling round once again to a snow-covered rose bush.
However, the work shown here was created about 6 years earlier and is thus a ‘prototype’ of sorts for the subject of the month paintings that would later become so important to her. It is also the first work to be inscribed in her own hand on the reverse with the name of the month.
In her diary, Olga Wisinger-Florian documented the process of creation in her characteristic telegraphic style. On 23 September 1884, she noted: ‘Rain, the beautiful weather has ended, berry bouquet begun, the first of the months’. Over the following three weeks, she often headed out into the country, collecting berries and leaves which served both as a model and inspiration. She worked on the ‘October’ picture day in, day out, starting with the different berries and hops in the foreground, and moving on to the yellowish leaves in the middle before finally reaching the more open sky and returning to the berries. Again and again, she showed the emerging work to Emil Jakob Schindler, who seemed to motivate her. On 9 October 1884, she triumphantly notes: ‘Pictures ready! Sloes and fog berries, then leaves changed, Victoria, this is the best thing of all, if only all of them were like this!’