Norbertine Bresslern-Roth

Biography

Norbertine Bresslern-Roth was born in Graz in 1891. The artist is considered one of the preeminent Austrian animal painters. Her concise oil paintings are now rarely found on the international art market and have become coveted collector’s items. Bresslern-Roth’s extensive oeuvre surprises with its abundance of motifs: domestic as well as exotic animals and wildlife are depicted again and again in true to life situations. She was never interested in a purely physiognomic representation of which she was, however, superbly capable. She rather tried to express fundamental emotions by means of the animals. As dispassionate, still contents alternate with dramatic motifs, Bresslern-Roth varied her colour range from monochrome compositions to strong contrasts. The use of wide-meshed jute as grounding is characteristic for her work, its coarseness supporting the nature-related contents of her paintings. Already in her time, Bresslern-Roth occupied an important position in the international art scene with her oil paintings and linocuts. To this day, her unmistakable paintings have lost none of their formal and thematic conciseness and fascination.