WEIHNACHTSGESCHENKE / DROGERIE LOIS FELLNER. Gouache maquette. Circa 1928.
23½x15¾ inches, 59¾x40 cm. Condition B / B+: repaired tear at right edge into central image; small repaired tears in margins; creases and abrasions in margins and image and along horizontal fold; hinged at top to mat. Paper. Matted.
Steiner was an Austrian painter and sculptor, working in the genres of classic modernism and New Objectivity. He studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts as well as the Académie Moderne in Paris. Steiner was arrested during the annexation of Austria in 1938, after which he almost exclusively created art with religious themes, and was banned from creating art altogether for 4 years. This maquette advertises just some of the "Christmas Gifts" that could be purchased at the Lois Fellner drugstore. A similar gouache study, without the name of the store, is in the collection of the University of Applied Arts, and was part of an exhibition of the "Oberhuber School." It is unclear if this drugstore ever existed, or if it was a design idea Steiner created for an unrealized store.
