Viennese, “Jugendstil” Bench

Designed by Baron Franz Krauß (1865 — 1942 ), and exe­cut­ed by the renowned, Vien­nese man­u­fac­to­ry Por­tois & Fix, as part of the award­win­ning, Aus­tri­an stu­dio con­cept for the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion, 1900.

This is one bench out of a pair includ­ed in Baron Franz Krauß’s con­cept for the spa­cious two floor stu­dio with fire­place, com­plete­ly con­struct­ed in elmwood.

This bench is made out of sol­id elm wood, with carved scrolling, and part­ly padded side ele­ments with open parts; the back padded, and framed by a carved frieze.

It is an excel­lent exam­ple of an ele­gant, clear ​“Jugend­stil” design draft with just a hint of flo­ral ele­ments. The oth­er bench belonged to the impor­tant Vien­nese col­lec­tor Rudolf Leopold, and is today in the Rudolf Leopold Art Col­lec­tion in Vienna.

Franz von Krauß was an archi­tect and trained at the Acad­e­my of Fine Arts in Vien­na under Karl von Hase­nauer and Friedrich von Schmidt. In 1894, Franz von Krauß found­ed his own archi­tec­tur­al office togeth­er with Josef Tölk. Suc­cess quick­ly fol­lowed for the two archi­tects with more orders for impor­tant projects. Their projects includ­ed vil­las and apart­ment build­ings in the Aus­tro-Hun­gar­i­an Empire. Spe­cial build­ings by the two archi­tects includ­ed: the Franzens­brücke over Vien­na’s Danube Canal, the ​“Volk­sop­er”, togeth­er with the archi­tect Alexan­der Graf, the Vien­nese ​“Bürg­erthe­ater,” which no longer exists, the Vien­nese Kam­mer­spiele and the ​“Kurhaus am Sem­mer­ing”, to name just a few. From 1908 Franz von Krauß was a mem­ber of the Ger­man Werk­bund and from 1913 also a found­ing mem­ber of the Aus­tri­an Werkbund.

This bench is a very spe­cial object, impres­sive­ly demon­strat­ing the impor­tance of Aus­tri­an archi­tects and design­ers com­pared to the inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion at the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion, reward­ed with the bronze medal. 

A rare oppor­tu­ni­ty for col­lec­tors and lovers of Vien­nese Art Nou­veau as addi­tion to col­lec­tions and pri­vate homes.

Por­tois & Fix:

Johann Fix found­ed an uphol­stery work­shop in 1842 in Vienna’s 4^th dis­trict, at Heumühl­gasse 20, which was tak­en over in 1872 by his son Anton Fix (1846 Vien­na – 1918 Vien­na). It could be said that the company’s gold­en era began with the con­struc­tion of the grand palaces along Vienna’s Ringstrasse, for which they pro­duced many fur­nish­ings and inte­ri­or dec​o​ra​tions​.In 1873, Anton Fix par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion, return­ing home with numer­ous awards. It is believed that Fix met the French entre­pre­neur August Por­tois (1841 Brus­sels? – 1895 Nice) dur­ing the Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion of 1873. How­ev­er, it is very like­ly that the two had met before this event. Some sources place their first encounter in 1880. 

Auguste Por­tois worked for a trad­ing com­pa­ny on Boule­vard Hauss­mann in Paris — a busi­ness that pro­vid­ed com­plete inte­ri­or fur­nish­ings for wealthy clientele.Together with Isidor Blum, Por­tois found­ed the Société Com­mer­ciale de Paris in 1869, based in Paris. A branch office was locat­ed in Vien­na at Kolowratring 7 (today’s Schu­ber­tring), named after the famous Aus­tri­an com­pos­er Franz Schu­bert. In 1874, Isidor Blum left the com­pa­ny, and August Por­tois con­tin­ued the busi­ness inde­pen­dent­ly in Vienna.

That same year (June 30, 1874), August Por­tois was appoint­ed Pur­vey­or to the Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Court. At that time, he oper­at­ed a work­shop in Vienna’s 9^th dis­trict. Even Empress Elis­a­beth com­mis­sioned the Société Com­mer­ciale de Paris in 1874 to redec­o­rate her rooms on the ground floor of Schön­brunn Palace. 

Sev­er­al pres­ti­gious com­mis­sions fol­lowed, includ­ing the apart­ments of Crown Prince Rudolf at Prague Cas­tle, the vil­la of Katha­ri­na Schratt, ships of the Impe­r­i­al-Roy­al Danube Steamship Com­pa­ny, and impe­r­i­al rail­way car­riages. Por­tois also took part in the Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion in 1873 and became a mem­ber of the Vien­na Guild of Cab­i­net­mak­ers in 1877​.In 1881, Anton Fix and August Por­tois found­ed their joint enter­prise, ​“Por­tois & Fix,” and from then on offered com­plete inte­ri­or design services. 

The offi­cial reg­is­tra­tion as a fine arts and fur­ni­ture work­shop fol­lowed in 1884. The company’s rapid rise over the next ten years was great­ly influ­enced by August Por­tois, who had by then acquired Aus­tri­an citizenship.

Por­tois & Fix’s first major pub­lic appear­ance took place at the Inter­na­tion­al Elec­tri­cal Exhi­bi­tion in Vien­na in 1883, gain­ing the com­pa­ny inter­na­tion­al acclaim. On the gallery lev­el of the Rotun­da, they pre­sent­ed sev­er­al ful­ly fur­nished salons and rooms illu­mi­nat­ed with Edison’s new­ly invent­ed light bulbs. This result­ed in many inter­na­tion­al com­mis­sions from Rus­sia, Egypt, Turkey, Switzer­land, Ger­many, and beyond.Subsequently, branch offices were estab­lished in the fol­low­ing cities: Lon­don, Paris, Milan, Budapest, Bucharest, Karlovy Vary, Wro­claw, Con­stan­tino­ple, Turin, Cairo, and Bombay. 

From the 1890s onward, Por­tois & Fix col­lab­o­rat­ed close­ly with artists, espe­cial­ly archi­tects and design­ers asso­ci­at­ed with the Wiener Werk­stätte (Vien­na Work­shop). The com­pa­ny pro­duced designs by Otto Wag­n­er, Josef Hoff­mann, Adolf Loos, and Kolo­man Moser in their own work­shops. By 1900, Por­tois & Fix had become one of the most impor­tant fur­ni­ture man­u­fac­tur­ers of the so-called ​“Vien­nese Modernism.”

Fur­ni­ture cre­at­ed by the Wiener Werk­stätte and the design­ers of this era can now be found in muse­ums and pri­vate col­lec­tions world­wide. When August Por­tois with­drew from the com­pa­ny due to ill­ness on Novem­ber 30, 1894, Anton Fix became the sole pro­pri­etor. August Por­tois passed away at the age of 54 in Nice. Between 1899 and 1901, based on plans by the archi­tect Max Fabi­ani, a new com­pa­ny head­quar­ters was built at Ungar­gasse 59 – 61 in Vienna’s 3^rd district.

Strong­ly influ­enced by the mod­ern archi­tec­ture of Otto Wag­n­er, Max Fabi­ani cre­at­ed one of the most advanced com­mer­cial build­ings of its time. Born in Slove­nia, Fabi­ani worked in Otto Wagner’s City Rail­way stu­dio, where he not only designed the Por­tois & Fix head­quar­ters on Ungar­gasse but also the Artaria Pub­lish­ing House on Vienna’s Kohlmarkt, the Ura­nia Obser­va­to­ry, and much more. Between 1905 and 1914, Fabi­ani also served as an advi­sor on archi­tec­tur­al and art-his­tor­i­cal mat­ters to Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand. 

From 1903 to 1904, he was a mem­ber of the Vien­na Seces­sion and, along­side Josef Plečnik, is regard­ed as one of the most impor­tant Sloven­ian archi­tects. For the recep­tion salon at the Paris World Exhi­bi­tion in 1900, Por­tois & Fix exe­cut­ed a design by Max Fabi­ani — the so-called ​“Emperor’s Room” — for which Fabi­ani was award­ed the Grand Prix.

In 1903, Anton Fix’s son Robert Fix joined the fam­i­ly busi­ness, bring­ing fresh cre­ative impe­tus through his designs and ensur­ing the company’s con­tin­ued suc­cess. On August 14, 1907, ​“Por­tois & Fix” was con­vert­ed into a joint-stock com­pa­ny. Fol­low­ing the death of his father in 1918, Robert Fix left the com­pa­ny to pur­sue a career as a painter. 

With­out doubt, ​“Por­tois & Fix” was one of Vienna’s most sig­nif­i­cant fur­ni­ture pro­duc­ers at the turn of the cen­tu­ry. Strate­gic expan­sion, prod­uct diver­si­ty, inno­va­tion, crafts­man­ship, and mod­ern think­ing all con­tributed to the company’s tremen­dous suc­cess. Its clien­tele includ­ed: Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Hous­es, aris­toc­ra­cy, bankers, indus­tri­al­ists, man­u­fac­tur­ers, the upper bour­geoisie, and entrepreneurs. 

In addi­tion to count­less exhi­bi­tions at home and abroad, the com­pa­ny par­tic­i­pat­ed in many inter­na­tion­al exhi­bi­tions, including:

- The Vien­na World Exhi­bi­tion in 1873

- The Paris World Exhi­bi­tion in 1900; At this World Exhi­bi­tion, the Aus­tri­an Pavil­ion fea­tured, among oth­er works, a stu­dio designed by Baron Franz Kraus and exe­cut­ed by Por­tois & Fix.
The pre­sent­ed stu­dio bench was one of two oppos­ing bench­es, cre­at­ed after the design of Baron Kraus and exe­cut­ed by Por­tois & Fix specif­i­cal­ly for this studio.

- The Impe­r­i­al-Roy­al Aus­tri­an Exhi­bi­tion in Lon­don in 1906

Many of the works cre­at­ed by Por­tois & Fix were — both then and now — pub­lished and wide­ly documented. 

Below is a small selec­tion of pres­ti­gious ref­er­ences from the com­pa­ny Por­tois & Fix:

- Hunt­ing Lodge May­er­ling, Low­er Aus­tria, com­mis­sioned by Crown Prince Rudolf

- Café-Con­fec­tionery Demel, 1^st Dis­trict, Kohlmarkt 14S

- Stadt­bahn Pavil­ion of His Impe­r­i­al and Roy­al Majesty’s Court (Archi­tec­ture: Otto Wag­n­er), Hiet­z­ing, 13^th Dis­trict, Schön­brun­ner Schlossstraße

- Jew­el­ry store A. E. Köchert, 1^st Dis­trict, Neuer Markt 15

- Men’s out­fit­ter Knize, 1^st Dis­trict, Graben 13, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Adolf Loos

- Flag­ship store of the tex­tile com­pa­ny E. Braun & Co., 1^st Dis­trict, Graben 8

- Loos­bar (Amer­i­can Bar), 1^st Dis­trict, Kärnt­ner Durch­gang 10, togeth­er with Adolf Loos, 1909

- Restau­rant and Del­i­catessen Zum Schwarzen Kameel, 1^st Dis­trict, Bogn­er­gasse 5, designed by Adolf Loos

- Palais Salm-Vet­sera, 3^rd Dis­trict, Sale­sian­er­gasse 11, which was demol­ished around 1916

In the 20^th cen­tu­ry, the com­pa­ny increas­ing­ly spe­cial­ized in cus­tom com­mis­sions, work­ing — among oth­ers — for the Vien­na State Opera, the Burgth­e­ater, the Aus­tri­an Par­lia­ment, the Span­ish Rid­ing School, banks, and oth­er pub­lic insti­tu­tions. Por­tois & Fix was also com­mis­sioned for work at the Roy­al Palace of Aman.

World’s Fair Paris 1900

The Paris World’s Fair of 1900, which marked the turn of the cen­tu­ry, was only the fifth World’s Fair since its incep­tion and the largest of its kind. Run­ning from April 15 to Novem­ber 12, 1900, it attract­ed around 50 mil­lion vis­i­tors to an exhi­bi­tion space of 216 hectares, where approx­i­mate­ly 80,000 exhibitors from 50 coun­tries pre­sent­ed their achieve­ments.

The fair­grounds were bound­ed on one side by the splen­did bridge erect­ed in hon­or of Tsar Alexan­der III and on the oth­er side by the Eif­fel Tow­er, which remained as the sole tes­ti­mo­ny of the 1889 World’s Fair. On this occa­sion, the tow­er was entire­ly dec­o­rat­ed with light­bulbs, mak­ing it vis­i­ble through­out Paris even at night.

With its World’s Fair of 1900, Paris offered the world an unprece­dent­ed event that far exceed­ed the orig­i­nal idea of a venue for com­merce, indus­try, and research.

Count­less attrac­tions left the pub­lic in awe.
Elec­tric street light­ing and a Fer­ris wheel with a diam­e­ter of 100 meters, illu­mi­nat­ed foun­tains, the Lumière broth­ers pre­sent­ing their films on a large screen, and the French­man Raoul Gri­moin intro­duc­ing his 360° film sys­tem Cinéo­ra­ma — which also result­ed in the first pre­served film record­ings.

The very first Metro line, Vin­cennes – Mail­lot, was inau­gu­rat­ed, and new, larg­er train sta­tions were built while old­er ones were mod­ern­ized, all to facil­i­tate vis­i­tors’ arrival in Paris.
Dur­ing this peri­od, sig­nif­i­cant build­ings were con­struct­ed, such as the Petit Palais and the Grand Palais, the Pavil­lon des Arts Déco­rat­ifs, and the Palais de l’Électricité, which was designed like a fairy­tale palace from One Thou­sand and One Nights, adorned with glass and gem­stones.

Almost all the pavil­ions of the par­tic­i­pat­ing coun­tries were styl­is­tic repro­duc­tions of his­tor­i­cal archi­tec­tur­al styles: the Amer­i­can was Neo­clas­si­cal, the Ital­ian in Renais­sance style, the Span­ish in Moor­ish style, and the Ger­man in Goth­ic style. Only Fin­land chose the mod­ern style of Art Nou­veau.

Also impres­sive were the mov­ing side­walks made of wood­en slats — called trot­toir roulant in French — which cir­cled the grounds but caused count­less com­plaints due to their loud noise.

Lit­er­a­ture:

• Ste­fan Üner: Por­tois & Fix, in: Wag­n­er, Hoff­mann, Loos und das Möbelde­sign der Wiener Mod­erne. Kün­stler, Auf­tragge­ber, Pro­duzen­ten, hrsg. v. Eva B. Ottill­inger, Ausst. Kat. Hof­mo­bilien­de­pot, Wien 20.3. – 7.10.2018, S. 145 – 147, ISBN 978−3−205−20786−3.

• Géza Hajós / Walther Brauneis: Die Pro­fan­baut­en des III., IV. und V. Bezirkes. Wien: Schroll 1980 (Öster­re­ichis­che Kun­st­to­pogra­phie, 44.2), S. 172 f.

• Andreas Lehne: Jugend­stil in Wien. Architek­tur­führer. Wien: J & V Ed.2, 1990, S. 55 f.

• Bun­des­denkmalamt [Hg.]: Dehio-Hand­buch. Die Kun­st­denkmäler Öster­re­ichs. Wien. II. bis IX. und XX. Bezirk. Wien 1993, S. 134

• Felix Czeike: III. Land­straße. Wien [u.a.]: Jugend & Volk 1984 (Wiener Bezirk­skul­tur­führer, 3), S. 68 f.• Ottokar Uhl: Mod­erne Architek­tur in Wien von Otto Wag­n­er bis heute. Wien [u.a.]: Schroll 1966, Register

• Friedrich Achleit­ner: Öster­re­ichis­che Architek­tur im 20. Jahrhun­dert. Ein Führer. Band ³⁄₁: Wien. 1. – 12. Bezirk. Salzburg: Res­i­denz-Ver­lag 1990, S. 132

• Diet­mar Stein­er: Architek­tur in Wien. 300 sehenswerte Baut­en. Wien: Mag­is­trat 1984, S. 142

• Paris­er Esprit und Wiener Mod­erne – Die Fir­ma Por­tois & Fix. Mit Beiträ­gen von Eva B. Ottill­inger, Peter Haiko, Ulrike Schol­da und Bernadette Decristo­foro; Ausstel­lungskat­a­log, 2008.

• Vera J. Behal: Möbel des Jugend­stils. Samm­lung des Öster­re­ichis­chen Muse­ums für ange­wandte Kun­st. Pres­tel Ver­lag, Wien 1988, ISBN 3−7913−0547−6.

• Ingrid Haslinger: Kunde – Kaiser. Die Geschichte der ehe­ma­li­gen k. u. k. Hofliefer­an­ten. Schroll, Wien 1996, ISBN 3−85202−129−4.

• Dorothee Müller: Klas­sik­er des mod­er­nen Möbelde­signs. Otto Wag­n­er, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoff­mann, Kolo­man Moser. Key­ser­sche Ver­lags­buch­hand­lung, Wien 1984, ISBN 3−87405−166−8.

• Maria Rennhofer: Kolo­man Moser – Leben und Werk 1868 – 1918. Brand­stät­ter, Wien 2002, ISBN 3−85498−123−6.