Josef Dobrowsky (22 September 1889 - 9 January 1964) was an Austrian painter and member of the Zinkerbacher Artist Colony that lived and worked together at Lake Wolfgang until its dissolution after Austria was annexed by Germany, known as the Anschluss, in 1938.
[1] Dobrowsky's early work is influenced by older contemporary Austrian painters like Gustav Klimt, Albin Egger-Lienz and Ferdinand Hodler.
Starting in 1920 he began an intense study of the Old Masters of the Netherlands His later work is heavily influenced by them, especially Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
[2] Beginning in 1927 Dobrowsky joined Ferdinand Kitt in summers to Lake Wolfgang and the small, adjacent town of Zinkerbach.
After Austria joined the German reich in 1937, known as the Anschluss, many of the artists were forced to flee because of their Jewish identity or their political leanings.