(Püspöck/Ladany 1857-1944 Vienna)
Homage to Empress Maria Theresa among her advisors, design for a ceiling painting of the Neue Hofburg, signed A. D Goltz, and inscribed A. D: Goltz on the reverse, oil on canvas, 56 x 125 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Collection of Johanna Fröhlich Edle von Fanjon (1860-1935), Vienna;
her sale, Dorotheum Vienna, 6 December 1935, lot 533 (unsold);
Dorotheum Vienna, 16 May 1936, lot 693;
unknown collection; Dorotheum Vienna, 25 February 1914;
lot 46;
Private Collection Austria.

Alexander Demetrius Goltz was born near Debrecen in Hungary in 1857 and grew up in Vienna. He studied painting in Munich before attending Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts under Feuerbach. Subsequently, he undertook extensive study trips through Europe, the Orient and America. From 1904 to 1907, Goltz was the head of the decoration department at the Court Theatre, and, two years later, he held the same post at the Imperial and Royal Court Opera Theatre. He also designed the National Theatre in Zagreb and the Jassy Theatre in Romania. In 1913, he created a ceiling painting for the Imperial Palace which depicts the encounter between Emperor Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy. Before this, however, Goltz had numbered among the finalists for another ceiling painting in the Palace, planned for the Maria Theresa Hall. Expert commentators at the time thought his design was stunning, but he took too much liberty with it for a work that was to be so tightly connected to the state. It was to be a stroke of luck for Goltz, for the Maria Theresa Hall was never to be completed, and his victorious competitor lost out in monetary terms. (JP)