Koloman Moser

Lifetime

1868–1918

Country

Austria

Manufacturers

Moser

Koloman Moser was born in Vienna in 1868. From 1886 to 1893, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien), and from 1893 to 1895 at Vienna's Kunstgewerbeschule under Franz von Matsch. He taught at this school from 1899, and in 1900 became professor of drawing and decorative painting.

In 1897, he co-founded the Vienna Secession; by 1903, he had produced around 140 illustrations for the journal “Ver Sacrum” and co-created its graphic design, while for the Secession building he designed the façade decoration and a window in the entrance hall. From 1897 to 1898, he designed textiles for Joh. Backhausen & Söhne, in 1899 glass for E. Bakalowits & Söhne, and around 1900–1902 furniture for Portois & Fix and the bentwood furniture manufacturer Jacob & Josef Kohn, as well as porcelain for Josef Böck.

In 1903, together with Josef Hoffmann and Fritz Wärndorfer, he founded Wiener Werkstätte, which produced furniture, jewellery, metal and leather goods, toys and book bindings. He left in 1907 after disputes with Wärndorfer and returned to painting, which was later influenced by Ferdinand Hodler. He prepared designs for the windows of Otto Wagner's am Steinhof church, jubilee stamps featuring Emperor Franciszek Józef in 1908, and, from 1912, the first stamps of Liechtenstein.

In 1905, he married Editha Mautner von Markhof and, in the same year, left the Secession with Klimt's group. He was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1916. He died in Vienna in 1918.