Rudolf Konopa (Austrian, –1938), In the Antique Store, dated 1890, oil on canvas laid on wood, 20.9″ x 12.9″
Rudolf Konopa was a prominent landscape, portrait, and genre painter during the turn of the 20th century. In 1881 he entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he studied with Rudolf Karl Huber, a professor at the Academy, and Josef Matyáš Trenkwald, a director of the Academy. After receiving the Master Class Prize at the Academy of Fine Arts, Konopa traveled to France, England and Italy. He spent time in Paris with his two friends Arnold Böcklin, a Swiss symbolist painter, and Eugene Jettel, an Austrian landscape painter.
Between 1900 and 1906 he was a member of the famous Viennese Artist Group “Hagenbund” — a group he helped to establish.
Beginning in 1898, Konopa produced graphic illustrative work, which included the design of postcards. During the First World War, Kanopa worked as an official war artist for the Austrian Army. After his death in 1938, a memorial exhibition of his work was held in the Vienna Künstlerhaus, an art exhibition building in Vienna.