Galerie Miethke

Galerie Miethke, also known as Galerie H. O. Miethke, was a leading Austrian art gallery in Vienna that operated from 1861 until the mid-20th century. Founded by Hugo Othmar Miethke, it evolved from a modest antiquarian bookshop and art publisher into one of the most significant art dealerships in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and later became a pioneering center for early Austrian modernism. The gallery played a crucial role in shaping Vienna's art market, introducing international modern art to Austria, and fostering both historicist and avant-garde movements.

The enterprise began on 15 October 1861 as Miethke & Wawra, a general partnership between Hugo Othmar Miethke, born 29 July 1834 in Potsdam, and Carl Josef Wawra, born 19 November 1839 in Vienna. Initially registered in 1863 as a book and antiquarian book trade, the firm operated an antiquarian bookstore at Singerstraße 30 and a photographic-artistic institution at Landstraßer Hauptstraße 95. It focused on editing photographs, reproductions, and printed works, but rapidly developed into organizing art auctions in Vienna. The partners established international contacts with major dealers including Ambroise Vollard, Paul Durand-Ruel, and Charles Sedelmayer in Paris, and Paul Cassirer in Berlin. During the 1873 World's Fair in Vienna, they spectacularly presented Hans Makart's monumental painting Venice Pays Homage to Katharina Cornaro at the Künstlerhaus.

The partnership dissolved in 1874, and Miethke established Galerie H. O. Miethke as sole proprietor, specializing in the publication of and trade with painting. The gallery moved from Plankengasse 6 to Neuer Markt 13 in 1882. In 1895, Miethke purchased the Palace of Nákó at Dorotheergasse 11 and commissioned the Viennese architecture firm Kupka & Orglmeister to redesign it. The new gallery opened on 29 May 1896, with Archduke Ludwig Viktor of Austria attending the opening; Emperor Franz Joseph I later visited as well.

Miethke retired around 1904. Hans Weidenbusch briefly owned the gallery but died soon after. On 22 November 1904, Paul Bacher, a jeweler and friend of Gustav Klimt, acquired it with the intention of making it a sales venue for the Vienna Secession. Bacher engaged Carl Moll as artistic director in 1905 and Arthur Roessler as gallery leader, though Roessler's commercialization plans caused disagreements that led Klimt's circle to leave the Secession. Emil Maria Steininger replaced Roessler in 1906. After Bacher's death on 5 May 1907, his widow Emma Bacher-Paulick took over and retained Carl Moll as manager.

Following World War I, Hugo Haberfeld, artistic director since 1907, continued operations at a different address until his emigration in 1938. The gallery was struck from the commercial register in 1940.

Galerie Miethke's holdings and exhibitions spanned old master paintings, 19th-century academic art, and emerging modernism. Under Hugo Othmar Miethke, the gallery dealt in old masters and auctioned artist estates including those of Hans Makart, Emil Jakob Schindler, and Rudolf von Alt. The gallery held exclusive imperial rights from 1868 to produce photographic reproductions of works from the Belvedere Gallery. Miethke cultivated international contacts that allowed him to present French, English, and German artists alongside Austrian ones.

After 1904 under Bacher and Moll, the gallery decisively shifted toward modernism. It became a showcase for Jugendstil and Wiener Werkstätte artists, as well as international modern masters. The gallery presented the first solo exhibition of Egon Schiele and the first comprehensive exhibition of the Wiener Werkstätte. Its exhibitions featured works by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Carl Otto Czeschka, and Rudolf Kalvach, alongside French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. The gallery also continued its auction business, handling estates of prominent Austrian artists and collectors.

The gallery's 1896 opening exhibition featured masterpieces by Meissonier, Troyon, Roybet, Corot, Leempoels, Pradilla, Rumpler, Molitor, Giacomo Favretto, Achenbach, Stuck, Gabriël, Max, Grützner, and Burne-Jones. A dedicated Hans Makart room contained a Makart bust by Viktor Tilgner. The display included a genuine Peter Paul Rubens painting, Mars and Venus, from the artist's series for Marie de' Medici, which Miethke had acquired from a Scottish private collection. Other notable works shown included a stormy landscape by Jan van Goyen, a male portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, a dune landscape by Salomon van Ruysdael, and a work by Gerard ter Borch.

In 1896, Miethke acquired Arnold Böcklin's God the Father and Adam in Paradise for 40,000 marks. The gallery hosted a major exhibition of about 300 works by Viennese landscape artist Robert Russ in October 1896, and the estate exhibition of Viktor Tilgner that November. In April 1897, over 200 works by Franz Rumpler were displayed, visited by Emperor Franz Joseph I on 14 May 1897. The December 1897 Franz von Stuck exhibition included The Fall of Man, Paradise Lost, Procession of Bacchantes, The Bad Conscience, Sin, and a portrait of Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria.

Under modernist direction, the gallery presented works by Aubrey Beardsley, Honoré Daumier, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Pablo Picasso. Exhibition records show dedicated shows for Van Gogh in January 1906, Wilhelm Bernatzik in February 1907, Goya in March-April 1908, Daumier in November-December 1908, and Manet in May 1910.

The gallery occupied three successive locations in Vienna. Its first site was at Plankengasse 6, where the firm operated as Miethke & Wawra. In 1882, it relocated to Neuer Markt 13, at the corner of Plankengasse 6, where it remained until 1895.

The definitive and most important location was Palais Eskeles, also known as Palais Nákó, at Dorotheergasse 11 in Vienna's Innere Stadt. Hugo Miethke purchased the palace in 1895 and commissioned Kupka & Orglmeister to redesign it in Neo-Classicist style. The first floor housed the publishing company and a light-flooded exhibition room for contemporary art with white marble flooring and a glass ceiling. The second floor, with its decorated and gilded wooden ceilings, provided an ideal setting for old master paintings. Miethke installed his private apartment on the third floor and continued to reside there even after selling the gallery business.

In 1904, a branch designed by Josef Hoffmann opened at Graben 17 in the Innere Stadt, under Carl Moll's artistic direction. This space hosted the landmark December 1905 exhibition Die Jungen, the first local presentation of the Wiener Werkstätte.

After the gallery's departure, Palais Eskeles served as the Haus der jungen Künstlerschaft and was acquired by the Dorotheum in 1936. Since 18 November 1993, it has housed the Jüdische Museum Wien, which in 2003-2004 held an exhibition on the gallery's history on the occasion of its tenth anniversary in the building.

Galerie Miethke was located in Vienna, Austria, with its principal and longest-running site at Dorotheergasse 11 in the Innere Stadt district. The gallery was a private commercial enterprise throughout its existence, founded and initially owned by Hugo Othmar Miethke, then sold to Paul Bacher in 1904, and subsequently managed by Emma Bacher-Paulick after her husband's death. Hugo Miethke retained ownership of the Palais Eskeles building and lived in its top-floor apartment until his death on 11 November 1918 at his castle Gutenegg near Celje.

The gallery ceased operations at its original address during World War I, in 1915, and Hugo Haberfeld continued the business at another location until 1938. The gallery was removed from the commercial register in 1940.

Today, no remnant of the gallery exists as an operating institution. Its historical significance is preserved through archival records, the extensive catalogues it published between 1867 and 1912, and the building that once housed it. The Palais Eskeles at Dorotheergasse 11, which contained the gallery's spaces, is now home to the Jüdische Museum Wien, making the site accessible to the public as a museum rather than a commercial gallery. The museum's 2003 exhibition on Galerie Miethke, curated in connection with research by Tobias G. Natter, remains a key resource for understanding the gallery's role in Austrian art history.