Adolf Pirsch - Paintings (1858 - 1929)

Adolf Pirsch was born on July 4th 1858 in Gradaz in Krain, at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today Slovenia. He studied art at the Graz Academy, Antwerp, graduating in 1879. He then went to Italy where he spent a year in Venice, Florence and Rome. Pirsch's first commissioned works were altar paintings for churches in Graz and Marburg and his first portrait exhibition took place in 1896 in Graz. During this period he met his future model and close friend the Belgian Olga Legros. Pirsch's most famous works of this period are the portraits of the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef and Pope Leo XIII, which can be seen in the Vatican.
Pirsch lived many years in Vienna where his female portraits were of great popularity. After spending some years in Dresden he moved to England and for the next 14 years became a requested portrayer of British high society. With the beginning of World War I Pirsch left for Holland. In the Netherlands he achieved the height of his career and became the favourite portrait painter of high society, where he painted Dutch monarchs and various portraits of Wilhelm II, the former German Emperor exiled in the Netherlands.
The sitter for these three portraits, Hanna Pirsch-Fieke, was born in 1879 in Haarlem near Amsterdam. From early age on Hanna Fieke was very interested in art and moved in artist circles in Holland and abroad. In 1912 she met Adolf Pirsch in London. The acquaintance soon became a close relationship and in 1914 daughter Ada was born. From then on the couple lived together in Holland. Hanna Pirsch-Fieke thanked her teacher and husband Adolf Pirsch (1858-1929) for a great deal of her development as painter.