Vase (Austria)

Today, the Wiener Werkstatte is most often associated with the rectilinear, inlaid, functional, and rational objects created by its co-founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann around the turn of the century. However, during and after World War I, a group of designers, led by Dagobert Peche, helped to redefine its style to embrace curving forms, ornament, and playfulness. Peche, appointed manager of the Werkstatte's artists' workshops in 1915, supplied designs for all areas and all media of Werkstatte production, designing around three thousand objects in total. This vase, likely the last piece (1923) Peche designed before his premature death at age thirty-six, represents the Werkstatte’s decorative post–WWI style. Peche's influences were varied: as a mentor he claimed Hoffmann (who was in turn influenced by his student), but was also inspired by Baroque and Rococo designs, ancient Greece (particularly the cult of Apollo and Dionysus, as shown by his recurring grapevine motif), folk art, and had a strong interest in painting. Peche, who was greatly admired in his time but is not well known today, was described by Hoffmann as “Austria’s greatest genius in ornamentation since the days of the Baroque.”

Vase (Austria); Produced by Wiener Werkstätte (Austria); chased, raised, cast, and applied silver; H x diam.: 23.9 x 21.6 cm (9 7/16 x 8 1/2 in.); Gift of Ely Jacques Kahn; 1962-227-2

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.