Die Neukunstgruppe and Friends of Schiele: Anton Faistauer
Wife of the Artist Ida Andersen (Frau des Künstlers Ida Andersen), 1919
Pastel on paper
ca. 40 × 60 cm
© Salzburg Museum

The pastel shows Ida Andersen in a quiet, introspective pose, her head resting gently on her hand. Faistauer’s strokes are loose yet deliberate, with soft violets, ochres, and warm browns shaping her features. The sheet carries his characteristic signature and the date “1919,” along with a small “2.” at the right, likely indicating a sequence or studio numbering. Ida appears here not as a formal sitter but as someone deeply familiar to the artist — relaxed, unguarded, and rendered with affectionate immediacy.

The model is his wife Ida Andersen, sister of fellow painter Robin Christian Andersen. Their link was both personal and professional, forming a small but vibrant artistic constellation around the Neukunstgruppe. Ida appears in several of Faistauer’s works, often with a quiet, luminous presence that reflects both intimacy and artistic respect. She was not merely a muse but an anchor within the circle of young modernists, someone who moved naturally between domestic life and the intellectual conversations that shaped the group’s ambitions.

Anton Faistauer (1887–1930) was an Austrian painter known for his lyrical, expressive handling of color and form. Born into a farming family in St. Martin bei Lofer, he originally intended to enter the priesthood before discovering that his true vocation lay in art. His early years were marked by a restless search for direction, and once he committed to painting, he pursued it with remarkable intensity. After studies at private painting schools and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, he famously broke away—together with Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and others—to co-found the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group), a bold rejection of academic conservatism and a declaration of artistic independence.

Faistauer married Ida Andersen, the sister of friend and painter Robin Christian Andersen, in 1913, weaving their personal and artistic lives even more tightly together. Their home became a gathering place for painters, writers, and thinkers who were searching for new forms of expression. During World War I, Faistauer and Schiele collaborated on war-themed exhibitions, maintaining their commitment to modernism even in a time of upheaval. These exhibitions were not merely patriotic gestures—they were attempts to confront the emotional and psychological realities of the era through art.

After the war, Faistauer returned to Salzburg, where he co-founded the progressive art collective Der Wassermann. The group included Felix Harta, Anton Peschka, Franz Wiegele, and Sebastian Isepp — artists who shared a commitment to renewing Austrian art after the war through expressive color, spiritual intensity, and a freer, more modern visual language. Their exhibitions helped re-establish Salzburg as a center for contemporary art in the early 1920s, with Faistauer emerging as one of its guiding forces.

This period marked a shift in his practice: alongside easel paintings, he undertook major fresco commissions that expanded his visual language and cemented his reputation. His frescoes—vibrant, monumental, and deeply rooted in the Austrian landscape—revealed a new confidence and a desire to bring modern art into public spaces. Later, he moved back to Vienna, continuing to work with intensity and conviction until his early death in 1930.

Faistauer and Schiele were united by their shared determination to break from tradition and carve out new artistic paths. Their dialogue—sometimes direct, sometimes through parallel experimentation—left a lasting imprint on Austrian modernism. Both artists believed that painting should reflect the inner life of the individual, not merely the outward appearance of the world. In this sense, their friendship and collaboration were part of a larger cultural shift: a movement toward authenticity, psychological depth, and the courage to challenge established norms.