Born: 15 November 1845, Austria
Died: 31 October 1916
Country most active: Austria
Also known as: NA
The following is excerpted from “”400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time”” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Tina Blau began her art studies at the age of fourteen years under van Hanly. She also studied with August Schafer in Vienna and Herr Wilhelm Linenschmidt of Munich.
In 1882 she painted a large canvas called Spring in the Prater, which is now treasured in the Austrian Statsgalerie as representative of the first example of impressionism in Austria. The painting was, at its appearance, not well received by the public, which did not understand it, but Tina Blau was recognized as an artist by Hans Makert, especially since this was entirely her own interpretation as she had never seen any of the examples of the French school of Impressionism. At an exhibition in Paris, an honorary mention was bestowed on the painting. She was now established. European and foreign museums bought the pictures which she so industriously painted. In 1883 she married Heinrich Lang, a painter of military subjects and animals. He died in 1892. During the short years of her marriage she was extremely happy and devoted to her hus- band. She was always loyal and self-sacrificing to her sisters and mother. She made many trips abroad for the purpose of study, always returning to Vienna where the state maintained an atelier for her, for forty years. She was appointed the principal teacher at the Woman’s Academy of Fine Arts, which position she held for seventeen years. During her lifetime she was accepted as the leading scenic painter of Austria, and was constantly kept busy with commissions both domestic and foreign. At the beginning of the World War, she was one of the first to offer her aid in looking after the families of absent or suffering artists. Without having a direct relative in the conflict, she suffered with her fellows the agonies of this bloody strife. There is a street in Vienna called Tina Blau in her honour.