August Schaeffer "bay Of Naples With Vesuvius"

August Schaeffer (Attr.) (Vienna, 1833 - 1916)

Bay of Naples with Vesuvius
Material: Oil on canvas, mounted. on cardboard
Dimensions: 29.5 x 40.5 cm
Frame: Yes
Date: 1885

August Schaeffer is the son of the surgeon Karl Schaeffer and his wife Josefa Elisabeth Scheibenbogen. He was born in the Viennese suburb of Mariahilf, Windmühle 66 (today Fillgradergasse 2). His sister Josefina Magdalena later married the painter Ludwig Halauska, another sister of the painter Karl Borromäus Post. From 1852 to 1856, Schaeffer studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna under the direction of the landscape painter Franz Steinfeld. From 1857, he undertook extensive study trips to Southern and Western Europe, notably to the North Sea, Hungary and the Alps. In 1871-74 he was scriptor at the library and, in 1874-80, curator of the gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. In 1881-92, Schaeffer was curator and, in 1892-1910, director of the art gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. As such, he made the museum a scientific institution and institutionalized aspects related to conservation. August Schaeffer was a member of the Eintracht artists' association and, from 1861, of the Künstlerhaus.

In 1884-86 he was a member of the board of directors and, from 1913, an honorary member of this institution, for which he also wrote a column entitled 50 Jahre Genossenschaft der bildenden Künstler Künstlerhaus (50 years of community history artists). From 1889 to 1916 he was a committee member of the Alterthums-Verein. In 1911 (diploma of November 6, 1912), he was elevated to the peerage and has since been given the name August Schaeffer Edler von Wienwald. In 1915, he became a court advisor. Schaeffer has written numerous works on the history of art and on the institutions for which he worked. He married firstly the opera singer Emilie Hoffmann (1835-1889) from 1862 to 1889, then secondly married Auguste Wahrmund from 1905 to 1916, after the latter's death. He was buried in the parish cemetery of Nussdorf.