art / January 23, 2022

The Underrated Art of Hans Zatzka

Hans Zatzka was born on March 8, 1859. There is very little information on his life and only one picture that I was able to find that is supposedly him.

Zatzka’s parents were a construction worker named Bartholomaüs, and a woman named Marie Karpischek Zatzka who may have been an actress. (I am not completely sure that is her name, I found a few other names). He also had several siblings, including a brother who was an architect.

Zatzka studied at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in the 1870’s and 1880’s. He spent some time traveling around Europe and first worked as a painter in churches, painting frescos and altar pieces. In 1880, Zatzka was given the Golden Füger medal for services to the city Vienna. Even though he earned most of his living through religious paintings, Zatzka is best known for his mythological and fantasy works. He often painted fairies and nymphs, drawing inspiration from The Grimm Brothers Fairytales or German composer Richard Wagners work.

Sometimes Zatzka’s art is difficult to find as he used many different psudeynoms. This was so he could get past rules limiting the number of paintings he could sell, which was common for artists to do at the time. P. Ronsard,Pierre de Ronsard, H. Zabateri, Joseph Bernard, J. Bernard, and Bernard Zatzka are just some of the other names he used.

In the 1920’s Zatzka began to sell his art on postcards. People specifically enjoyed the more scandalous art, or “boudoir images.” Even though the style that Zatzka painted in was popular, he never taught or had students. For most of his life it seemed he remained alone in his house and just painted. Honestly, every time I look up his art I find something new. He just created so many works of art and they’re all very beautiful.

Hans Zatzka died on December 17, 1945 (or 1949) Most of his work today resides in private collections, and you can occasionally find them being sold at auctions. Hans Zatzka is my absolute favorite artist, and although seeing his art online is not uncommon, but the actual artist himself is very baffling considering how little is apparently known about his life. Below are just a few of his many, many artworks.