Felix Albrecht Harta (né Hirsch; 1884–1967) was an Austrian expressionist painter, graphic artist, organizer, and teacher whose oeuvre consisted of portraits, nudes, landscapes, and still-lives, working in varied media.
When Harta was three years old, his father moved the family to Vienna, and Felix spent his childhood with his brother, Ernst, and sister, Alice.
Harta's desire to be a painter clashed with his father’s insistence that he should study architecture, so he spent four and a half years at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna.
In the winter of 1905, Harta passed the entrance exam at the Academy München and was admitted to the painting class of Prof Hugo von Habermann.
From Paris, he undertook a three-month study trip to Spain and immersed himself in the painting style of masters like Velasquez, El Greco, and Goya.
Elly is the daughter of the Hermanns, an industrialist family who lived in Hietzing, Vienna, and owned a residential house as well as a small Biedermeier-style cottage with a large garden.
He visited the painters such as Maurice Utrillo and his mother, Suzanne Valadon, and also met Auguste Rodin and the poet Rainer Maria Rilke.
[7] In January 1916, Harta showed 9 oil paintings and 22 drawings in the Berlin Secession Exhibition along with such notables as Schiele, Klimt, Kokoschka and Kolomon Moser .
They met regularly at the Café Bazar and the Hotel Bristol and were frustrated at the collapse of the Austrian-Hungarian monarchy, while being united in their desire to create a new artistic vision for Austria.
Out of the dislocation of the disintegration of the monarchy arose in all of us the common wish of creating a new Austria of the muses out of the left-over pieces, which was the birth of an artist's union.
[14] He carried on a robust letter exchange with his friend, and artist-colleague, Anton Faistauer, who argued against founding a new artistic association.
[15] The new rebellious association was called “Der Wassermann” (Aquarius in English), and Harta was named President and is listed as a founding member.
Gutersloh, Faistauer, Oskar A.Vonwiller, Anton Kolig, Robin C. Andersen, Alfred Kubin, Broncia Koller-Pinell, Franz Wiegele, and Egon Schiele (posthumously).
Today it is recognized that “Der Wassermann” introduced modern art to Salzburg, and contributed greatly to its cultural development.
Finally, both worked to establish a modern painting academy in Salzburg but the lack of financial support from the city and state brought a swift end to this groundbreaking idea.
[1] In 1920, Harta arranged for permanent exhibition space in the Neue Galerie in what today is Salzburg's Alter Markt (old market).
[14] Many of Austria's most prominent artists showed their oils and graphics including Faistauer, Harta, Kokoschka, and Klimt and Schiele(posthumously).
[18] On March 24, 1921, Harta was baptized into the Catholic faith, with the critic, playwright, and scholar, Hermann Bahr serving as his Godfather.
In June 1928, the Hagenbund presented a themed show on the 'Family', including a collection of 36 oil paintings by Harta that received favorable reviews.
[23][22] Despite the German occupation in 1938, Harta allows the well-known expressionist dancer, Hilde Holger to have dance lessons and secret performances in his studio.
[1] In 1927 the Hartas adopted a young woman named Gusti Wolf who would become a renowned Austrian stage, screen, and television actress.
[26] These difficult experiences are critical to understanding the direction of his stylistic development, wherein his paintings become more conservative and the expressionistic tendencies begin to diminish.
In April 1955 the Staatsdruckerei Vienna opened a collective of Harta's oeuvre where he exhibited around 100 oil paintings and an approximately equal number of watercolors and drawings.