Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Karl Hagenauer was an important and popular figure in the decorative arts in Vienna in the decades bracketing the Second World War. While primarily a maker of sculptural decorative pieces, Hagenauer — in the same spirit as his peer Carl Auböck— created a wide array of household objects, from barware to office accessories, all designed with wit and a sleek modernist aesthetic.
Hagenauer’s father was a trained metalsmith who founded a bronzewares manufactory that produced decorative metalwork and housewares in both traditional and the then-novel Art Nouveau styles and cast small sculptures based on Old Masters paintings. After studying art and design at Vienna’s School of Applied Arts, where his teachers included architect Josef Hoffmann, a founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, he joined his father’s workshop in 1919 and began crafting items that reflected Hoffman’s modernist aesthetic. In the 1920s and ’30s, he developed an often-imitated style that combines the lithe, lissome lines of Art Nouveau (known in central Europe as Jugendstil) with the simple, unadorned forms of Art Deco. He worked primarily in brass — both polished and nickel-plated — as well as wood.
In addition to domestic items such as smoking accoutrements, teapots, trays, bowls, candleholders and tableware, Hagenauer produced a wide array of small-scale sculptures. (His younger brother, Franz— who took over the family business when their father died — was also a noted sculptor, with a style that could be described as Art-Deco-meets-Brancusi.) Karl’s sculptures fall into two main groups: humorous and whimsical animal and character figures that will remind many of the work of artist Tom Otterness and sleek, stylized animal and human forms, many with an African theme — an “exotic” connotation that was a 20th-century remnant of colonialism. As you will see from the items on offer, Karl Hagenauer was an artist-designer of great talent and many moods: affable, stylish and practical.
Mid-20th Century Austrian Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Brass
1930s Austrian Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Cane, Glass, Walnut
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Hardwood
1930s American Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Metal
Mid-20th Century Austrian Art Deco Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Wood
20th Century Organic Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Silver Plate
21st Century and Contemporary Spanish Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Concrete
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary American Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Ceramic
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Clay
Late 20th Century Finnish Scandinavian Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Birch
2010s Mexican Modern Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Onyx
1930s Austrian Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Copper
1950s Austrian Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Bronze
1930s Austrian Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Brass
1930s Austrian Modern Vintage Karl Hagenauer Furniture
Brass, Bronze