Women's Work: Maria Likarz-Strauss and Mathilde Flogl

Leaves, 1923
Above design by Maria Likarz-Strauss

Maria Likarz-Strauss was one of the most prolific pattern designers in the Vienna Workshops, but her name is rarely mentioned in books on the subject. She seems to have been influential in her time however. According to Daniel Walker, director of The Textile Museum in Washington DC, “she was the most active textile designer in the workshop [Wiener Werkstätte], with almost 200 designs attributed to her.” Likarz-Strauss had a broad stylistic range that incorporated the stylized floral elements associated with Peche with the formal geometric patterns that originated with Hoffman. Yet, she is most well known for her abstract patterns with infinite repeats, which reflect the international trends that led to the Art Deco Style.

Mathilde Flogl learned design, applied graphic and creative enamelling and was trained under Joseph Hoffmann. She was admitted in 1916 at the Wiener Werkstatte. From 1918 she designed more than 120 textile patterns for the Wiener Werkstatte. She was influenced by Dagobert Peche and Maria Likarz Strauss.

Flowers 1920

Bambi 1925

Caliopsis 1930Above Designs by Mathilde Flogl

Graphic Design of the Wiener Werkstaette

Please check out our related blog on GRAPHIC DESIGN of the workshops.

Wilhelm Jonasch

Study Fragment Entitled "Cobenzl", 1910/11

Silk, plain weave; screen printed

27.3 x 16.2 cm

Study Fragment Entitled "Wiener Wald" (Vienna Woods), 1910/11

Silk, plain weave; screen printed

17.3 x 17.1 cm

New Year Greeting, 1910/11

Lithograph on Paper

8.9x14 cm

Hilda Jesser

Vase, Circa 1925
Glazed painted ceramic
9 1/2" (24.2 cm) high
Executed by the Wiener Werkstätte

Fashion Illustration from Das Leben einer Dame

Hand-colored linoleum print from portfolio of 20 by various artists of the Wiener Werkstätte
11 3/4" x 15 1/2" (29.7 x 39.3 cm)
Private collection

Hilda Jesser

1894–1985

• 1912 attended Vienna School of Applied arts as a "guest student"
• 1914 becomes full time student
• 1915 admitted to Josef Hoffmann's architecture classes
• works for the Wiener Werkstätte, primarily designing fabrics and fashion until 1922

Images courtesy of Galerie St. Etienne

Textiles of the Weiner Werkstatte by Angela Volker 1910-1932

This text by Angela Volker (Thames & Hudson 2004) is an incredibly comprehensive resource on the subject of the Wiener Werkstatte's Textile work.

Much of it is available for view (though with poor quality images and no accreditation) here.

It is available for purchase here.

Joseph Hoffman Designs 1928-29

Dagobert Peche

Dagobert Peche studied in Vienna between 1908 and 1911. Starting with mechanical engineering at the Technical Institute, he switched to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, where he studied architecture. His formal language at first revealed Baroque and Rococo influences, but he was also interested in standardizing forms and the new possibilities afforded by industrial mass production of crafts objects. Dagobert Peche joined the Wiener Werkstätte in 1915. The Wiener Werkstätte had been founded in 1903 by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, and the banker Fritz Wärndorfer. As one of its most creative exponents, Peche designed some three thousand objects, including china, furniture, book bindings, jewelry, fashions, textiles, and even Christmas tree decorations.

Dagobert Peche's textiles stood in stark contrast to many of the bold, geometric prints from the Werstatte, his work being more rounded and eclectic. Many of his prints repeat in an offset, slanting motion and feature natural elements interpreted with decorative, curvy line work. His textiles work had an effect on the way Peche saw mass-produced ornament, as shown in his black and gold piece Cabinet in which he laid perfectly offset gold medallions on the face of the furniture piece, cutting of the repeat at the edges of the cabinet to create the illusion that the pattern might extend and repeat infinitely outwards. While Peche's work was greatly ornamental, he was intrigued by the phenomenon of repeated pattern.

Peche's patterns are recognized for their distinctive style that typically features the delicate representation of naturalistic forms, sometimes in large-scale repeats, with an emphasis on fine-line drawing.

Dagobert Peche, Cabinet, 1918

Josef Hoffmann

Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956):

• Studied at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Vienna
• Worked in Otto Wagner’s architectural practice
•  Founding member of the Vienna Secession
• Artistic director of the Wiener Werkstatte and professor
• Primarily an architect, but created work in all branches of the workshop

Dagobert Peche

Left- Paper sample print for fabric Rax, 1911. Right- Paper sample print for fabric Schatten 1916

color print proof on paper, Rosengarten 1911/1913

4 furnishing materials

lace table clothes

living room in the Wolko Gartenberg Apt. 1921 featuring Regenbogen fabric

Josef Urban's office with wall covering Pappelrose 1911/1916

oman's blouse for Nelly Peche 1915 feat. Einsame Blume

Dress by Paul Poiret feat. textile Diomedes by Peche 1919

all designs by Dagobert Peche

Koloman Moser

Vogel Bulow, pre-print drawing, 1899

Baumfalke, color proof on paper, 1910/1911

Spiel der Wellen, print proof on paper, 1899

dress featuring Bergfalter, 1911

all designs by Koloman Moser

Josef Hoffmann Textile Samples

Textile Sketch
Design of a woven velour carpet for Palais Stoclet
Pencil and watercolor
c. 1910

"Bellflower"

Sketch for carpet design for Palais Stoclet, to be used on the servant's staircase

Pencil, watercolor and gouache

c. 1910

"Apollo"

Fabric design

c. 1910-15

"Cypren" (Cyprus)

Fabric design and its application for a pinafore dress

c. 1910-15

Carl Otto Czecshka Textile Samples

"Waldidyll"( Forest Idyll)

Fabric design

c. 1910- 1911

Carl Otto Czecshka.

• Trained at the Akademie der bildenden Künste 1894-99 in Vienna
• As well as being an affluent artist of the period, Czecshka also taught at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna from 1902-1907
• Member of the Secession in 1900
• Member of the Wiener Werstatte from fall 1905 onwards
• He was a multidisciplinary artist, with skills ranging from illustration, textile design and metal crafts
• Handicraft and commercial art
• His most important work were a series of illustrations for the book Nibelungen

Wiener Werkstätte, fabric-covered bound article on the Palais Stoclet From Moderne Bauformen, 1914

Wiener Werkstätte fabric-covered bound article on the Palais Stoclet
From Moderne Bauformen, c. 1914
Printed cotton, paper
12" x 8.5"

Textile fragment, "Mandelkrähe", Eduard J. Wimmer-Wisgrill, 1910

Textile fragment,Mandelkrähe (Roller)
Eduard J. Wimmer-Wisgrill for Wiener Werkstätte, 1910
Printed silk
7" x 13"

Textile fragment "Othello", Dagobert Peche, 1911

Textile fragment,Othello
Dagobert Peche for Wiener Werkstätte, 1911
Printed silk
11" x 14"
Textile Traces: The Lloyd Cotsen Collection

Textile fragment, Liszt Dagobert Peche, 1911

Textile fragment, Liszt
Dagobert Peche for Wiener Werkstätte, 1911
Printed silk
14.5" x 13"
Textile Traces: The Lloyd Cotsen Collection

"Vorgarten" textile swatch, Wilhelm Jonasch, 1911-1912

"Vorgarten" textile swatch

Wilhelm Jonasch
Wiener Werkstatte
1911-1912

Textile Swatch, Wilhelm Jonasch, 1911

Textile swatch
Wilhelm Jonasch
Wiener Werkstatte
1911