LEOPOLD MUSEUM RECEIVES EXTENSIVE HOLDINGS OF EMINENT BACKHAUSEN ARCHIVES AS PERMANENT LOAN

05.02.2024

The comprehensive Backhausen Archives will be made available to the Vienna Leopold Museum as of now on permanent loan: Around 11,000 individual objects, including thousands of original designs and fabric samples from the periods of Historicism, Jugendstil, Art Deco and Kinetic Art – among them works by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser – will be shown to the public for the first time at the Leopold Museum from November 2024 as part of a special exhibition. The presentation Poetry of the Ornament. The Backhausen Archives (13th November 2024 to 9th March 2025) is set to afford insights into the collection’s tremendous variety. Beyond this exhibition, select objects will be shown continuously as part of the Leopold Museum’s permanent presentation Vienna 1900.

The Commitment of Dr. Louise Kiesling (1957–2022)

When Louise Kiesling, who passed away in 2022, took over Backhausen in 2014, she set about cataloging and digitalizing the company’s unique collection. Her personal vision, which was shaped by her appreciation for and knowledge of Austrian textile crafts, can now be carried forward in accordance with the wishes of her family. With her artistic and creative mindset, cultivated not least by her degrees from the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the Royal College of Art in London, Louise Kiesling promoted textile art and made vital contributions to preserving this collection. “We are delighted that through our cooperation with a cultural institution of such renown as the Leopold Museum we have managed to preserve the archives as part of Austria’s cultural heritage and to make them accessible to a wider interested public”, stresses the late entrepreneur’s son Andreas Kiesling.

The successful realization of this undertaking is owed significantly to the lenders’ foresight and affinity for art. The Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger emphasizes the importance of this significant expansion of the museum collection: “We are grateful to the owners for trusting us with archives of such art historical value. We especially wish to pay tribute to the achievements of Dr. Louise Kiesling who, with passionate enthusiasm and great ideational and monetary commitment, championed the archives’ systematic scientific reappraisal, the creation of an inventory, as well as the photographic documentation and the storing of the holdings in keeping with museum conservation standards, thus succeeding in preserving this precious cultural heritage for posterity. Without her valuable work for the Backhausen Archives, which in 2022 have been placed under monument protection in their entirety on account of their uniqueness, this cooperation and the exhibition in the autumn of 2024 would not have been possible.”

Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism

The permanent presentation at the Leopold Museum is the world’s most comprehensive overview exhibition on art and culture in Vienna around 1900. The presentation allows visitors to delve into a unique world of experience, ranging from Historicism, via Jugendstil and Expressionism, all the way to New Objectivity. Paintings and graphic works by eminent artists like Hans Makart, Tina Blau, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Broncia Koller-Pinell are on display alongside exquisite examples of artisan craftwork of Viennese Modernism. The holdings of the renowned archives of the company Backhausen tie in perfectly with this presentation, while entrusting them to the care of a museum safeguards the continued scientific appraisal of the archives’ objects and their presentation in Austria and abroad.

Johann Backhausen & Söhne, a Traditional Brand of World Renown

The company Joh. Backhausen & Söhne is among the most tradition-steeped producers of upholstery and decorative fabrics in Austrian history. The company was founded around 1840 in Vienna by Jakob Backhausen (1789–1849). The son of a master weaver from the Rhineland had come to Vienna in 1811 and purchased a house in Gumpendorf. His son Johann Backhausen (1818–1866) took over the enterprise in 1849, the year of his father’s death, and together with his brother founded the company Karl & Johann Backhausen & Co. The superior quality of their products soon won them international distinctions. When Karl left the business, it was renamed Johann Backhausen, k.k. ausschließlich privilegierte Mode- und Chenillefabrik [Imperial-Royal Exclusively Privileged Fashion and Chenille Factory]. Johann secured the patents for the manufacture of chenille products in Austria, France and Saxony, and even supplied his goods to the United States. In 1864, the company opened a salesroom on the newly built Ringstraße, at Heinrichshof – a building designed by Theophil von Hansen situated opposite the Vienna Court Opera. The company’s main lines of production were premium fashionable fabrics, fabrics for upholstery and curtains, as well as damasks, brocades and carpets made from silk and wool. The booming business produced fabrics for the interior decorations of several buildings along the Vienna Ringstraße, including the Imperial-Royal Court Opera, the seat of the Imperial Assembly (today’s parliament), the town hall and the Burgtheater. In 1888, Johann Backhausen was awarded the title of Imperial-Royal Purveyor to the Court for his high-quality work and premium products.

Main Supplier of the Wiener Werkstätte

From 1903, Backhausen focused on collaborations with contemporary artists, not least on account of its close cooperation with the Wiener Werkstätte, established that year by the founding trio Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser and Fritz Waerndorfer. Among these artists were eminent protagonists of Viennese Modernism, such as the above-mentioned artists Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, as well as Otto Wagner, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Jutta Sika, Dagobert Peche, My Ullmann and Otto Prutscher. Backhausen specialized in turning these artists’ designs into commercial products. This fruitful symbiosis culminated in the decorations for Sanatorium Purkersdorf (1904/05), Villa Ast (1911), Villa Skywa-Primavesi (1913–1915), the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905–1911) and Villa Knips (1924).

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