“His
talent for surface decoration and every sort of
invention in the field of arts and crafts struck us as fabulous.” - Josef Hoffmann
In photographs Koloman Moser can always be counted on to have a twinkle
in his eye. As his friend Hermann Bahr described Moser's disposition:“He is Viennese through and through. His inventions seem to dance, to
hover....Occasionally one perceives a
gentle melancholy like the merest shadow of a cloud, but it's gone in an
instant.”
Moser perfected his design conception in the new Hohe Warte neighborhood; he imposed a diagonal layout inscribed on a square. Built-in cabinetry, a necessity for a family
with few pieces of furniture was thereby turned into a new and elegant
design principle. Moser also distributed
his electric light fixtures around the ceiling in preference to the simple and
obvious central overheard light. The
integrated treatment of the walls and furnishings created a clean geometric
surface that could accommodate some curvilinear elements without becoming
overly busy.
In 1900 Kolo Moser
had designed a 'reform' dress for Alma Schindler, stepdaughter of Carl Moll. After Alma went to
the Moser home in Vienna's working class Third District, she wrote in
her diary for February 1, 1900, a passage that also reveals the leap that Moser was about to make in his life as well as in his art:
“Passing
through a dingy entrance hall, we climbed the equally dingy stairs to the
apartment. On the doorbell we read: Theresia
Moser, cartetaker's widow.
Shyly
I rang the bell. A woman in a threadbare
cardigan opened it – she so resembled Moser that I instantly recognized her as
his mother. I asked after him – he
wasn't at home. A dowdy young girl
appeared – his sister. I could see
behind her into the front room, which also served as the kitchen. It was fairly sordid and, above all,
dreadfully shabby.”
Moser's father Josef worked at the Theresianische Akademie, a preparatory school; the family lived
on the grounds.
Kolo, as he was nicknamed, had two sisters Leopoldine and Charlotte. Josef Moser died unexpectedly in 1888, so the family had to move. Koloman Moser
earned his way through various art courses by giving drawing lessons. It was while he was a student at the Wiener
Kunstgewerbeschuel that Moser met Gustav Klimt in 1895. It was his permanent appointment as professor at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule (College of Arts & Crafts) in 1900 that finally gave the 32 year old Moser a measure of financial security.
At that time the average life expectancy in Austria was 44 years for men and 47 years for women so Moser was running short of time.if he wanted to marry and have his own family. (As it turned out Moser, a heavy smoker, was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx in 1916 and died in 1918, barely fifty, leaving a widow and two sons, Karl (age 12) and Dieter (age 9) ).
Moser's painting of Cyclamen from 1907 shows a corner of the dressing room he designed for his bride, Ditha, in 1905. Notice the rows of black squares outlining the built-in furniture against the white wall and the liberty Moser the painter took in shading it green for this occasion. Hermann Bahr was the one who nicknamed Moser the Tausenkunstler or 'Thousand-artist'. You can see what he meant.
Images:
1. Wiener Werkstatte Archive - Josef Hoffmann's duplex house for Koloman Moser and Carl Moll, Hohe Warte, 1903, Museum for Applied Culture, Vienna.
2. Wiener Werkstatte Archive - Koloman Moser house - Hohe Warte, c. 1901, Museum of Applied Culture.
3. Koloman Moser - Cyclamen, 1907, Vienna State Museum.
