Sergius Pauser

Sergius Pauser was an Austrian painter of landscapes, still lifes and portraits, mainly females. He experienced a severe psychological crisis around 1913, as a teenager. He was silent for a year and had suicidal intentions. Pauser first began to study architecture and then changed to Fine Arts, studying from 1919-24 at the Academy of Fine Arts in München. During this time he was influenced primarily by the work of the famous German painters Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and Karl Hofer. In 1925 he returned to Wien (Vienna) and further studied for a year at the local Academy of Arts under Karl Sterrer.

In 1927 Pauser became a member of the Wien Secession. The critics and Austrian society respected his portraits, and in 1932 he was awarded the Austrian state prize. His works from his objective phase in the late 1920s and early 1930s were of particular importance. After World War II he was much in demand as a portraitist and firmly integrated in the Austrian art scene, receiving many commissions for portraits of politicians and actors, and he received numerous awards and honors.

Pauser’s two most important works were Der Österreichische Staatsvertrag (The Austrian Independence Treaty) because of its historical dimension, as well as the painting Am Hochofen (At the smelting furnace) for showing the working conditions of metal workers and representing the socially critical dimension of his work. During the Nazi period he was regarded as a degenerate artist, whose paintings were suspended “wrathfully” by Adolf Hitler personally at a 1937 München exhibition. In 1944 Pauser was imprisoned in a camp near Radkersburg.

From 1927 to 1930, Pauser painted at least three pictures showing Tennis Courts with players. It can be assumed that the work dated 1927 (oil on canvas, 45 x 57 cm) is the one shown in Amsterdam the following year. Horse Jumping is documented by an illustration in the 1936 art catalog. It was painted in 1935 as an oil painting on canvas (73 x 92 cm).