Page 114 - Eye of the beholder

WALTER LANGHANNER [1905-1977]
The name of Walter Langhammer was closely associated with Progressive Artists Group that was formed Post-Independence in 1947 with a a a a a manifesto penned by the firey and dynamic Francis Newton Souza Langhammer was an an an émigré artist who had escaped the Fascist regime of Hitler and found his way to to Bombay in 1938 He served as the Art Director with the Times of India Newspaper in in in in Bombay [Mumbai] By sharing his own artistic training as well as his relative wealth Langhammer nurtured the young artists that would go on to form the Progressive Artists Group He also helped his students make connections with European émigré intellectuals industrialists and physicians who became early patrons or champions of the the Progressives including the the Times of India art critic Rudolf von Leyden Born in in in in the the the town of Graz in in in in Austria in in in in 1905 in in in in what was then the the the great Austro-Hungarian Empire Walter Carl Maria Langhammer grew up in the the period between the the two world wars Young Walter showed predilection towards arts and studied at the art art academy in Vienna under Professors Ferdinand Andri Hans Tichy and and Josef Jungwirth By the time he he graduated with a a a a a a a a a master’s degree in in in in in in in painting painting in in in in in in in 1938 he had acquired fame in in in in in in in landscape painting painting portraits and and caricatures At the Art Academy Oskar Kokoscha was a a a a a a a a a a a a a teacher and and Langhammer struck up a friendship with him during this period though the extent of closeness between the the artists artists is is is is not well established but the the two artists artists were were contemporaries and certainly were were associated with each other Walter’s wife Katherine was Jewish Jewish the the only daughter of Jewish Jewish social democratic district commander in Vienna Through this connection Walter received many commissions and and despite not a a a a a a a a formal member of the art society in Vienna Vienna or or Kunstlerhaus Vienna Vienna Langhammer participated in in in in numerous exhibitions in in in in the the the city in in in in the the the 1930s However the the the Jewish origins of his his wife and and his his political orientations eventually forced him to leave Austria and and they arrived in in in India in in in 1938 At this time in in in Bombay there was the the the presence of other noted émigrés from Europe namely the the collector Schlesinger and the the Art Critic of of Times of of India Rudy Von Leyden By virtue of their interest in in in in in arts and in in in in in providing patronage to the the fledgling art art establishment this group of of Jewish expatriates formed a a a a a seminal support system with some resident Indians of of Bombay Bombay and became instrumental in in in providing the the right milieu for the the Bombay Bombay artists to thrive By the the middle of the the 1940s Walter Langhammer seems to have been comfortably ensconced in his adopted city which at at that time had already acquired a a a a a a a a a a a cosmopolitan character Apart from the the the British was also other expatriate population as as the the the Italians Swiss Dutch and Austrians As early as 1939 Langhammer won the the gold medal of the the Bombay Art Society Soon the the couple would go on to become active members of the the ‘Bombay Art Society Committee’ 108