Albert Reuss (2 October 1889 – 4 November 1975) was an Austrian-born British painter and sculptor. He was born in Vienna and fled to Britain in 1938 following the Anschluss, Adolf Hitler’s annexation of Austria to the German Reich. In the process, Reuss lost many members of his family, and the reputation he had built up as an artist in Vienna. He continued to work as an exiled artist, but his style changed dramatically, reflecting the trauma he had suffered. Many public collections in Britain hold his work, most notably Newlyn Art Gallery in Cornwall, the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (the Belvedere Gallery) and the Albertina both in Vienna, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.
Life Biography in English by Widder Gallery, Vienna
1889–1922: Early years in Vienna Albert Reuss was the son of Hungarian Jews, Ignaz Reisz (1855–1911) and Sidonia née Freund (1861–1928). Ignaz was a Fleischhauermeister and Fleischhändler, a master butcher and meat trader. The couple at some stage moved to Malacky, in former Hungary, now Slovakia, where their first three sons were born. In the late 1880s, the family moved to Vienna, where Albert was born, followed by a further six children, three of whom died in infancy, leaving seven surviving children in all. The family name Reisz was changed by the Austrian authorities to Reiss. From a young age, Albert became estranged from his family. A frail, sickly and vulnerable child, he seemed neither to fit into nor to belong to the family into which he was born. He suffered from ill-health and had considerable difficulties with social interaction throughout his life. He was introduced to the world of art by a rich uncle, Baron Andreas Ritter von Reisinger, who was married to his father's sister, and who appears to have instilled in the young boy a lifelong inferiority complex. Albert's artistic abilities emerged when he was only five years old, and at the age of 14, he applied, unsuccessfully, to the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien. Unable to pursue his dream of becoming an artist, he was obliged, on leaving school, to assist his father as a butcher. Given his delicate disposition and artistic sensibilities, working at the butchery was not an effective fit. There followed a series of equally unsuitable jobs, including salesman, childminder and actor, all of which ended in dismissal. These repeated experiences of rejection only added to his lack of self-worth. He became determined to teach himself by copying the Old Masters in the Belvedere Gallery and managed to gain several commissions for these paintings, as well as some commissions to paint portraits.
At the beginning of the First World War, he was obliged to undertake military service, but was allowed to do this in Vienna, due to his poor health, avoiding frontline duty. In 1915 he met his future wife, Rosa Feinstein (1891–1970), the daughter of Benjamin Feinstein, a merchant, and his wife Hinda née Prechner. Benjamin was born in Warsaw, Poland, which was at that time under the rule of Imperial Russia, making him and his family technically Russian. Rosa offered Albert the acceptance and encouragement he so desperately needed. Their marriage lasted for 55 years, and throughout that time she acted, in effect, as his agent and manager.
The couple were married in December 1916, but shortly after, Albert contracted tuberculosis and spent 18 months in a sanatorium. He took advantage of his confinement by drawing portraits of fellow patients, from which he began to establish a reputation as a portrait artist. Once he had recovered, the couple moved to an apartment at Möllwaldplatz 3, Vienna IV, where Albert established his studio, and in October 1922 they converted to Christianity. Also at this time, Albert started to use the surname "Reuss", though this change of name was not officially recognised until 1931. A young student, Sylvio Metzger, also moved into the apartment and developed a lifelong friendship with Albert and Rosa. A large body of correspondence between Sylvio and the couple has survived, and is stored, along with much other documentation, at "basis wien" in Vienna.The Estate of Albert Reuss
1922–1938: Artistic development During the 1920s, Reuss gradually established himself as an artist, working initially in portraiture, then developing an individual style of line drawing, which he called his linear work. In 1922, he exhibited a portrait at the Vienna Secession, (also known as the Union of Austrian Artists), and had his first solo exhibition at the Würthle Galerie in 1926. In 1930, a newspaper proprietor sponsored him to spend a year in Cannes, where he completed forty portraits and landscapes in oil, following which, he had a second solo exhibition at the Würthle Galerie in 1931. His exhibitions received good reviews in the Viennese press. Reuss subsequently became a member of the prestigious artists' association, the Hagenbund, with whom he exhibited on a number of occasions during the 1930s.
From 1926 to 1938, Reuss taught at the Fachlehranstalt für das Kleidungsgewerbe (The Specialist Teaching Institute for the Clothing Industry). In 1934, he also started working as a sculptor, creating, among other things, portrait busts of the Viennese councillor Johann Grassinger and of the actress Maria Eis, as well as a study of his wife Rosa, now in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Throughout this period, the couple developed a middle-class lifestyle, and filled their flat in Vienna with numerous books, artefacts and artworks, including two works by Egon Schiele. Thus, by 1938, Reuss had become an established and relatively prosperous painter and sculptor in Vienna. However, this period coincided with the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party, and by this time, it became clear that Albert and Rosa would have to flee their home country.
1938–1947: Flight from Vienna and first years in England Following the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in March 1938, the Reusses packed up all their possessions, including Reuss's artworks, into 38 crates and left these in storage, but almost everything was confiscated by the Nazis. With the help of Cornishman and Quaker, John Sturge Stephens (1891–1954), they escaped from Vienna to England, where they arrived in Dover penniless and empty-handed in August 1938. They had with them 10 Reichsmark (equivalent at the time to about £1 sterling), the maximum cash allowed to emigrants by the German authorities. Some members of the Reiss family were not so fortunate: Albert's brother Julius and his family and his sister Ernestine and her husband Roman Torn were murdered in the Holocaust. Reuss's remaining siblings emigrated to the United States.
After a brief stay in London, the Reusses were invited by John Sturge Stephens to his cottage in St Mawes, the springboard of their future life in Cornwall. Now in their late forties, they were obliged to build a new life and career from scratch. This proved to be a struggle, despite the significant help and support they received from numerous benefactors. Two local female painters in St Mawes offered Reuss the use of their studio, and in October 1938, a first exhibition was held there, followed by another exhibition at Lanham's Gallery in St Ives, Cornwall in December 1938. A third exhibition took place in August 1939 in Truro, Cornwall. However, after England's declaration of war against Germany in September 1939, Reuss was briefly interned as an "enemy alien" in June 1940 at a detention centre in Shropshire, which greatly distressed him. Following his release in August 1940, Albert and Rosa moved to Cheltenham, where they remained for the next eight years. A fourth solo exhibition took place in 1940 in Cheltenham, followed by a fifth in 1944, Reuss having produced over 200 paintings in the corner of his small living room. He also obtained a job as an art teacher at Dean Close School, an independent school in Cheltenham, which helped him to become more financially self-reliant, and to supplement his income as an artist. In 1947, Albert and Rosa Reuss were finally granted British nationality.
1948–1975: The Mousehole years In 1948, the Reusses moved to Mousehole, a fishing village in Cornwall, three miles beyond Penzance. Here they established the ARRA Gallery. Two flats (one to rent out), together with a studio and gallery, had been built for them by painter Ruth Adams (1893–1948), whom they had first met in 1938 at Lanham's Gallery in St Ives. Ruth was an ardent admirer of Reuss and was determined to bring her friends back to Cornwall, but she died in an accident just four weeks after their arrival, having left ARRA to the Reusses in her will. This inevitably caused gossip, and the entire episode was a most inauspicious way for Albert and Rosa to begin their new life in the village. Whereas they had been well accepted in St Mawes and Cheltenham, here they were largely to remain outsiders, despite a number of important new friendships. Much to his chagrin, Reuss's attempts to join the Penwith Society of Arts were unsuccessful, as is evident in correspondence with founding member Peter Lanyon. Nevertheless, now 60 years of age, Reuss continued to paint for the rest of his life, supported by the many friends and admirers he and Rosa had made over their first few years in England.
Whilst Albert painted, Rosa managed the ARRA Gallery together with their friend, Jeanne Day, and in collaboration with the Arts Council of Great Britain, hosting local artists such as Mousehole-born Jack Pender (1918–1998) and Alexander Mackenzie (1923–2002) of the St Ives School. The gallery eventually closed in 1956. Between 1945 and 1956, Rosa also organised numerous solo exhibitions of her husband's work in municipal galleries throughout England, particularly in the North, where many galleries still hold his works.
From 1953, Reuss held regular one-man shows at the renowned O’Hana Gallery in London. Jacques O'Hana was an international art dealer specializing in the French Impressionists. He was a colourful, larger-than-life character, who became Reuss's friend and mentor for the next 20 years until O'Hana's death in 1974.
Once ARRA closed, and there were no further exhibitions in the provinces, the couple started to experience considerable financial difficulties. They managed to obtain compensation for victims of political persecution and a small pension from the Austrian Government. They received additional financial support from Reuss's younger brother, Max Reiss, with whom Albert had a difficult relationship.
Albert and Rosa's last few years were also plagued by ill-health, with repeated hospital stays for both of them. In January 1970, Rosa died. She had spent her entire life caring for and supporting her husband and ensuring that he remained in touch with the outside world. Albert was inconsolable, but struggled on alone for a further five years, still painting. He became concerned about his artistic heritage, fearing that his paintings could be destroyed after his death.
He entered into a lengthy correspondence with the Austrian Press Secretary and later Deputy Ambassador in London, Dr Ingo Mussi (1935–2012), who arranged, with Jacques O'Hana, for some of Reuss's works to be sent to international galleries in Vienna and Israel. Following O'Hana's death in 1974, almost 200 works, including paintings, sculptures and drawings, remained in the London gallery. Ingo Mussi arranged, with the permission of the dying artist, for these to be sent to Vienna to be curated by an organisation called Euro Art.