Bertha Czegka: Skiing Bunnies And Other Satire

Biography

Bertha Czegka (July 30, 1880 – November 4, 1954) was a member of the “Association of Visual Artists” in her native Austria. In the interwar period, the painter worked as an illustrator on children’s books. One highlight among her later works is a poster she created in 1934 (above) for skiing in Arlberg which shows Austrian ski pioneer Hannes Schneider (24 June 1890 – 26 April 1955) teaching a group of rabbits how to ski. (Buy the poster here.)

Czegka herself was a passionate skier and joined the Austrian Ski Association in 1911.

 

Bertha Czegka  studied at Franz Patek’s drawing school at the Vienna Women’s Employment Association and from 1897 to 1902 at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, where she learned figurative painting from painter Karl Karger (30 January 1848 – 18 October 1913) and nude drawing from Andreas Groll (1850 – 1907).

She took part in exhibitions at the School of Applied Arts and at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900. Her works were also shown at the Vienna Dorotheum from 1902 onwards. She later continued her studies at the Munich School of Applied Arts under German painter Heinrich Knirr (2 September 1862 – 26 May 1944) and in London.

 

In 1902, Czegka attracted attention when several of her caricatures appeared in the festival almanac Schwarz auf Weiß on the occasion of the ball of the School of Arts and Crafts. For it, she portrayed the 24 authors involved in the publication, such as Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Franz Servaes. She also designed the cover of the almanac.

 

From 1904, Czegka worked for various newspapers, designing satirical sheets for, among others, the Wiener Zeit, the Österreichische Illustrierte Zeitung, the Illustrierte Sportblatt and Der liebe Augustin. Between 1904 and 1914, she created 34 illustrations for the satirical magazine Meggendorfer-Blätter, which ran for 57 issues between 1888 and 1944.

 

In 1911, Czegka took part in the anniversary exhibition of the Association of Fine Artists of Vienna in the Vienna Künstlerhaus . Her humorous work Viennese Street Sweeper, which was shown there, was purchased by the Kaiser.

She became known primarily through her satirical works, which she executed in ink or as line woodcuts and which appeared in various magazines.

 

“Take any person, look at him carefully, knead him thoroughly in your mind, turn him over well, then let him stand and cool. Then add a few parts of malice, throw yourself on a sheet of paper, and in a few strokes you will have created a successful or unsuccessful caricature.”

– Bertha Czegka

 

Her works can be found in the collections of the Vorarlberg Museum and the Albertina.