Emil Orlik

Emil Orlik portrayed the famous physicist Albert Einstein (1879–1955) several times – the first time in 1917. The painting is in the Jewish Museum in Prague. This sketch was done in New York, where the two met during Orlik’s trip to America. It is special because it shows the scientist engrossed in playing the violin. The instrument was Einstein's faithful companion and music was an important channel through which he liked to express himself. The drawing comes from the sketchbook Orlik used in America. It later served the artist as a model for a lithograph.

Edwin Fischer (1886–1960) worked as a teacher at the Music Institute for Foreigners in Potsdam from 1914, where he exerted a great influence on young pianists from all over the world by leading the “Summer Courses”. Emil Orlik captured him with only a few pen strokes, bending over the keyboard. Orlik shows nothing of his face. Averted from the viewer, the virtuoso devotes his full attention to playing the piano. 

The Polish pianist and composer Wanda Landowska (1879–1959) was considered one of the best music teachers of her time. In 1925 she founded her own school in Paris, the “École de Musique Ancienne”. Before that, she taught at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik between 1913 and 1919. It was probably here that Emil Orlik’s sketch was made. Like Edwin Fischer, Landowska is also turned towards her grand piano. In particular, the eyes are drawn to her fingers, which appear to be moving quickly. Orlik used the motif from his sketchbook as a model when producing the lithograph.

Emil Orlik dedicated an entire portfolio of ten lithographs to the Dutch conductor and composer Willem Mengelberg (1871–1951). For 50 years Mengelberg was head of the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, which became world famous for its virtuosity under his direction. In this sheet from the portfolio, Orlik captures Mengelberg’s concentrated facial expression. He focuses on the conductor’s hands in four separate studies.

Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886–1954) held several prominent positions as a conductor in the 1920s. He succeeded Richard Strauss at the Berlin State Opera from 1920, and from 1922 he was chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In Vienna, he was one of two concert directors of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde until 1927, and, at the same time, conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig until 1928. During one performance, Emil Orlik sketched Furtwängler on a page of the concert program. The artist was probably not satisfied with his first drawing, because he crossed it out, turned the page over and started again.

The portrait of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) is one of Orlik’s most famous. It is assumed that it was painted during Orlik’s stay in Vienna in the spring of 1902. At that time, Mahler was working as the conductor and director of the Vienna Opera House – one stop in a long and varied career. In the 1880s, he held the position of a musical director and conductor at the New German Theater in Orlik’s native Prague. Mahler himself came from the Bohemian village of . For the portrait of his compatriot, Orlik chooses an unusual point of view. He paints the face in fine detail and sculpts it elaborately with light and shadow. It almost appears photographed, in contrast to the jacket, which is simply hinted at using a single line.

Orlik portrayed Richard Strauss (1864–1949) in the penultimate year of the famous composer’s Berlin period. Strauss had worked here for twenty years as conductor at the Prussian Court before moving to the Vienna Court Opera. Emil Orlik was a friend of the Strauss family. With great precision, he brings to life the features of the early 50-year-old. In order to capture the sitters as realistically as possible, Orlik often used the so-called “glass plate apparatus”. First, he would record all the important lines on the glass plate through which he viewed his model. Then, he would transfer the drawing to paper, which he would finally use to etch the printing plate.

The portrait of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) is one of Emil Orlik’s portraits of historical figures. A drawing of Ludwig van Beethoven, which is also in the KOG, dates from the same year. In Wagner's case, Orlik focuses on the head. He shows the esteemed innovator of European music from a slightly lower angle, so that the viewer looks up at him. While Orlik usually reproduced the facial features of his contemporaries in great detail, here he uses a reduced line drawing.