Emil Fuchs (artist)

Emil Fuchs, MVO, (9 August 1866 – 13 January 1929) was an Austrian and American sculptor, medallist, painter, and author[1] who worked in Vienna, London and New York. He painted portraits of Queen Victoria and Edward VII and was fashionable among London high society in the early 20th century.[2][3][4][5]

He was born in Vienna on 9 August 1866. During his years in Austria, Germany and Rome he was a sculptor and medallist who eventually began to study painting as well. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Edmund von Hellmer and Viktor Oskar Tilgner.[6] He then attended the Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin where he studied under Fritz Schaper and Anton von Werner.[3] From 1891 to 1897 he was in Rome, having won the German Prix de Rome in 1891.[3] While in Rome he had an affair with Elvira Fraternali; this is referred to in the film D’Annunzio.[4] He had a sister Renee, and was brother-in-law of Gustav Freytag.[4]

From 1897 to 1915 his address was in London where he regularly met with the artist Lawrence Alma-Tadema.[3][4] He had been mainly a sculptor and medallist, but he began oil painting, especially portraiture in oils, in 1897; his early mentor was John Singer Sargent. He exhibited works at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1898 and he taught there.[2][7] He worked on commissions including portraits for Queen Victoria and Edward VII, and his portraits became fashionable among various patrons from the aristocracy and high society.[2][3][4][5] He was honoured with the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1909.[8] While in England he was employed by the Birmingham Mint.[5] By 1905 he had been teaching at Paris, Berlin, Munich, Vienna, and Rome and was making winter trips to the United States.[4][7]