Albin
Egger-Lienz

Albin Egger-Lienz, biographical name Ingenuin Albuin Trojer, was born on 1 March 1868 near Striebach in Lienz as the illegitimate son of Maria Trojer and Georg Egger. He began his education with his father, from whom he only took his surname in 1877, who worked as a photographer and painter of sacred subjects, from which he learned the basics of drawing and painting. From 1884 to 1893 he studied at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts with Karl Raupp, Gabriel von Hackl and Wilhelm Lindenschmit. He started working in the city as a freelance artist as early as 1894, based on the style of Franz von Defregger. He moved to Vienna in 1899 where he married his wife Laura von Möllwald; in 1900 he became a member of the Artists' House and the city's 'Hagenbundes'. He received the bronze medal for his work 'Feldsegen' at the 1902 World Exhibition in Paris. He joined the Wiener Secession from 1909 to 1916. He was called to teach at the Academy of Fine Arts in Weimar in 1912, but gave up after only 15 months, moving to Santa Giustina near Bolzano with his family. Egger-Lienz was called up for military service during the war years (1915-1917). It was a difficult period for the artist during which he created various works on the theme of soldiers and war.
In both 1919 and 1925 he was asked to teach at the Academy in Vienna, but declined on both occasions. His last years were full of personal successes, such as the great appreciation he received at the Venice Biennale in 1922 or the honours he received from both the University of Innsbruck and his hometown Lienz in 1925. Also in 1925, he was commissioned to paint a fresco in Lienz for the war memorial chapel. He died in 1926 in his residence 'Grünwaldhof' in St. Justina; he was buried, at his own request, in the chapel in Lienz that he had frescoed only the year before.