Griepenkerl
zoom in zoom out

The painter Christian Griepenkerl

Magnificent paintings for the bel étage

No expense is spared for the interior design of Palais Epstein. The wealthy banker Gustav Epstein commissions the famous painter Christian Griepenkerl to create the magnificent paintings for the bel étage. His depiction of the birth of Venus can be seen in the image above.

Griepenkerl is a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where, from 1877, he oversees the historical painting department. Because of this an entire generation of Viennese painters are taught by him. One of his most famous students is Egon Schiele.

The professor, who dies in 1916, achieves wider fame posthumously as it is he who rejects the drawings submitted by Adolf Hitler in 1907, deeming them “unsatisfactory”, and so prevents his being accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts.

Fields marked with * are required.