Oskar Laske - Ets, Fish Market Bruges. (Vismarkt van Brugge)

Oskar Laske
1874 Czernowitz - 1951 Vienna
Oskar Laske was born on January 8, 1874, in Czernowitz, Bukovina (now Ukraine). In 1884, he moved with his family to Vienna and in 1888/89 received private lessons in landscape drawing from Anton Hlavacek. From 1892 to 1898, he studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology and at the Academy of Fine Arts in the class of Otto Wagner. After graduating from university, he joined his father's company, "Laske & Fiala."
His most famous building, the pharmacy “Zum Weißen Engel” in Vienna, was built in 1901/1902 in Art Nouveau style.
During extensive travels to England, Scotland, and Italy, Laske created his first paintings and etchings. In 1907, he became a member of the Hagenbund, later also of the Secession and the Künstlerhaus. It wasn't until 1908 that the young architect, who had enjoyed great success with his exhibitions as a member of the Hagenbund, decided to become a painter. Extensive study trips took him throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, which were reflected in his paintings and illustrations.
During World War I, Oskar Laske belonged to the "Kriegspresseviertel" (war press district) and worked as a war painter primarily in Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. During the war, in 1916, he married pianist and teacher Emilie Klein. In 1924, he became a member of the Vienna Secession. During the interwar period, Laske received the Vienna City Art Prize and the Austrian State Gold Medal.
During World War II, he lived in a kind of internal emigration. From then on, his work focused on views of Vienna and its surroundings.
Oskar Laske died on November 30, 1951, three years after Emilie's death, at the age of 77 from lung disease in Vienna. The following year, he was posthumously honored with a major memorial exhibition at the Albertina in Vienna and the Künstlerhaus.
Departing from traditional Austrian mood-impressionism, he developed a style unprecedented in Vienna at the time, thanks to his narrative talent, with a predilection for the cheerful and the bizarre. He became known for works like "Das Narrenschiff" (The Narrator's Ship) and "Die Vogelpredigt" (The Bird Preacher).