Austrian Artist: Rudolph Sternad

Young American Girl, Believed to Be
Marion Louise Rodie* (1927-2014),
Wearing a Yellow Sundress and
Depicted in a Seaside Landscape

Austrian (painted in America by an Austrian artist)
dated 1931
by Rudolph Sternad (1880-1944)
(signed obverse, lower right edge, Rud. Sternad / 1931)

3 inches diameter (sight); full frame measures 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches

watercolor on ivory; housed under glass in an ormolu (gilt bronze) frame

*In search of commissions from wealthy Americans, between 1929 and 1931, Sternad traveled to several cities in the United States, including New York, Detroit (Michigan), Hartford (Connecticut), and Palm Beach (Florida). As evidenced by his note to the reverse of the young girl's portrait (see below), it was painted in New York, in March 1931. A preparatory sketch of the same girl appears in the sketchbook Sternad used during his American travels. Beside the sketch of the girl, he inscribed the name, "Mrs. Rodie". The Rodie name, likewise, appears in a list of Sternad's American clients that was published in 1933 for an exhibition at the Dom-Galerie (the gallery of the Cologne Cathedral, or Kölner Dom), in Cologne, Germany. That list included the name "Mrs. W. S. Rodie, Springfield". An exhaustive search through genealogy websites reveals that a Mr. and Mrs. William Stuart Rodie, Jr. lived not in Springfield, but rather in Fairfield, Connecticut (60 miles northeast of Manhattan). (Could it be that someone mis-transcribed Fairfield and Springfield in the list of Sternad's American clients?) Mr. and Mrs. William Stuart Rodie had two children, the eldest having been Marion Louise Rodie, who would have been four years-old in March 1931, making her the most likely subject depicted in Sternad's miniature.

Backing Paper Located to the Reverse of the Portrait,
Bearing the Artist's Signature, His Address of Stubenring 14, Vienna,
and the Date and Place Where the Portrait Was Painted:
March 1931, New York, U.S.A.

About the Artist: Rudolph Sternad (also known as Rudolf Sternad) was born on September 2, 1880, in what is today the city of Liberec, in the Czech Republic, but was at the time of his birth known as Reichenberg, Bohemia, part of what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a young man, he was trained as a lithographer at the Staatsgewerbeschule (State Trade School), in Reichenberg, after which he worked in the lithographic institutes of Varnsdordf (northern Czech Republic, close to the border of Germany) and Zittau (Saxony, Germany). From 1903 to 1906, he studied art under Prof. August Eduard Wentzel (1895-1971), at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts), located in Gablonz (now Jablonec, Czech Republic). From 1910 to 1914, he served as director of a studio for poster art in Hamburg, Germany, while also developing his skills as a portrait painter in oils on canvas. Sternad later shared with an American journalist, in 1930, that he painted a portrait of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, shortly before his assassination in Sarajevo, on June 28, 1914, precipitating what would become World War I.* Sternad himself promptly joined in the war effort, serving in the German army of Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the war, Sternad settled in Vienna, Austria where, from 1918, he worked exclusively as a portrait painter, by then having fully embraced the art of painting miniature portraits in watercolor on ivory. There, along with the likes of Wilhemine Stadler (1898-1936) and Rudolf Ipold (1873-1936), he established himself as a master of Viennese miniature portrait painting, painting portraits of many noteworthy and wealthy individuals. In 1924, he became a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus, a society of distinguished Viennese painters, sculptors and architects, where he exhibited many miniature portraits over several years. In 1929, he traveled to the United States where, through 1931, he visited amongst other destinations, New York City and high society New York seaside towns, Hartford (Connecticut), Detroit (Michigan) and Palm Beach (Florida), painting portraits of many wealthy Americans. Upon his return from America, Sternad is known to have exhibited numerous portraits in Vienna and Germany, including many American works which he exhibited at the Dom-Galerie (the gallery of the Cologne Cathedral, or Kölner Dom), in Cologne, Germany, in 1933. His work appears to have been stymied by the rising currents of war in Europe that ultimately erupted into World War II; but, as evidenced by works that have come to auction in recent years, it is known that he continued to paint, albeit on a limited basis, through 1944. Sternad met his end on January 21, 1945, at the age of 64, when he was killed during an allied bombing raid of Vienna. He was buried at the Friedhof Grinzing (Grinzing Cemetery), in outer Vienna, near the Vienna Woods. His grave was later moved, however, in 1985, to the Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Vienna Central Cemetery), where his remains rest in an honorary location, along with other important cultural figures of Vienna. During his painting career, Sternad is estimated to have painted over 850 miniature portraits, many of them being of members of the Austrian and Spanish aristocracy, the Viennese bourgeoisie and the Swiss nobility. Many of his works remain in the hands of private families as well as several important collections. Listed by Benezit, Blättel (pages 858, 859).

[*Noted Portrait Artist is Here (newspaper article), The Palm Beach Post, Palm Beach, Florida, February 25, 1930 edition, Vol. XXII, No. 15, pg.]