Anton von Schlechtleitner Collection with three paintings by Egger-Lienz at the 42nd “Bozner Kunstauktionen”

Anton von Schlechtleitner (1882 – 1960) came from a family that can be traced back to the 13th century in Bolzano and was raised to the nobility in 1699. From 1906 until the late 1950s he very successfully ran a trading company on Bolzano’s fruit market with an associated coffee roasting plant. During the First World War, Schlechtleitner served as a medic with the 2nd Tyrolean Kaiserjäger Regiment on the Russian and Italian fronts (Col di Lana). His interests were wide-ranging, he was enthusiastic about mountaineering and extensive bicycle tours and also excelled as a “sensitive art lover and collector” (obituary). As with his fellow merchant Emil Duca from Bolzano, he paid particular attention to Albin Egger-Lienz (the Duca collection is now in the Tyrolean Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck).

The “Anton von Schlechtleitner Collection” will be presented to the public for the first time at the 42nd “Bozner Kunstauktionen”. It essentially comprises works from the 2nd half of the 19th century and the early 20th century with a focus on Tyrol and Vienna.

Absolute highlights are three paintings by Albin Egger-Lienz: the only portrait the artist painted of his mother (1895), a large-format, representative version of “Hl. Nacht” (1917) and a particularly high-quality and exemplary “Kopf eines Sarner Bauern” (1920). All three pictures can be found in the Egger-Lienz catalogue raisonné by Wilfried Kirschl, but the latter has not been able to see them in the original.