Portrait of Mrs Rosalia Schischka

This portrait depicts Mrs Rosalia Schischka, who, like Lindauer, was an immigrant from Pilsen, Bohemia. She arrived in New Zealand with her husband Lorenz and seven children in March 1866 and, like many immigrants from Bohemia, settled in the Puhoi valley, where they farmed 220 acres. She was 73 years old when this portrait was painted. When this particular portrait was painted Lindauer was working as a ‘journeyman’ painter, travelling from town to town and advertising his services as an oil painter in newspapers, as well as exhibiting his paintings in shop windows. He was based around Auckland from 1875-1877. The artworks from this early period share a close resemblance and evidence strong similarities to Lindauer’s Bohemian portraits, which are based on the Bidermeier art tradition. As with his Bohemian portraits, Rosalia Schischka has been painted against a brown background, against which the details of her clothing and jewellery are highlighted with small dabs of white paint. This is one of approximately 1,000 portraits that Lindauer painted. He was highly regarded by the wider public for his ability to create a ‘speaking likeness’ of his sitters and he was commissioned by a wide variety of people including shopkeepers, clergymen, travelling salesmen and mayors.

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