Willy Eisenschitz

(Vienna 1889 - 1974 Paris)

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Biography

Willy Eisenschitz

Willy Eisenschitz was born in Vienna in 1889 as the son of a Jewish lawyer. Against his father’s will, he studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 1910. In 1912 his path took him to Paris, then the center of the international art world. It was there that the flames of Eisenschitz’s lifelong passion for the work of French artists Paul Gauguin, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh were first fanned. His Paris years also evoked his love of the country itself and its diverse landscapes. In 1914 the artist married Claude Bertrand, a fellow student at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. That same year, his work was exhibited for the first time at an exhibition called ‘Young Artists of Austria’ at the Vienna Secession. During the First World War he was interned as an ‘enemy alien’ and from 1917 lived with his family (he had in the meantime fathered two children) in Lucerne. After a short stay in Vienna in 1919, he was drawn back to Paris. In 1925, the Eisenschitz family moved to Dieulefit in the Departement of Drôme and two years later they settled near Toulon. During that time, the landscapes of Southern France and Provence, in particular, became the favourite motives in the artist’s paintings. Eisenschitz was a member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and from 1930 a corresponding member of the Hagenbund. He became a French citizen in 1935. Upon the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to the safety of Dieulefit. After his wife’s death in 1969, Eisenschitz moved back to Paris, where he lived and worked until his death in 1974. During his lifetime, Eisenschitz paintings enjoyed great success at numerous exhibitions in France, England, and overseas. Today, his works can be found in renowned museums as well as private collections.

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