Dagobert Peche
Dagobert Peche was trained as an architect yet his career was built on his extraordinary talent as a decorative arts designer. Peche has been credited with ushering in a new era for the decorative arts. The artist began his studies at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna under Max von Ferstel, Karl König, and Leopold Simony before transferring in 1908 to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where the architect Friedrich Ohmann was his main influence. In 1910 he traveled to Great Britain, where he is believed to have seen the work of the graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley—Peche's early style shows the influence of Beardsley's line.
At a birthday celebration for architect Otto Wagner, Peche met Josef Hoffmann. Soon thereafter, Peche was offering textile and wallpaper designs to the Wiener Werkstätte. He also showed ability in other areas and began contributing designs for furniture, glass, jewelry, toys, and other objects. In the field of graphic arts, he designed postcards, as well as invitation cards, bookplates, and posters. His figures, often putti, reclining nudes, or costumed harlequin figures from the commedia dell'arte pose suggestively, with a touch of the Rococo style, and carry a playful erotic charge. Peche also designed woodcuts, which …
Dagobert Peche was trained as an architect yet his career was built on his extraordinary talent as a decorative arts designer. Peche has been credited with ushering in a new era for the decorative arts. The artist began his studies at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna under Max von Ferstel, Karl König, and Leopold Simony before transferring in 1908 to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where the architect Friedrich Ohmann was his main influence. In 1910 he traveled to Great Britain, where he is believed to have seen the work of the graphic artist Aubrey Beardsley—Peche's early style shows the influence of Beardsley's line.
At a birthday celebration for architect Otto Wagner, Peche met Josef Hoffmann. Soon thereafter, Peche was offering textile and wallpaper designs to the Wiener Werkstätte. He also showed ability in other areas and began contributing designs for furniture, glass, jewelry, toys, and other objects. In the field of graphic arts, he designed postcards, as well as invitation cards, bookplates, and posters. His figures, often putti, reclining nudes, or costumed harlequin figures from the commedia dell'arte pose suggestively, with a touch of the Rococo style, and carry a playful erotic charge. Peche also designed woodcuts, which were included in the fashion portfolio Mode Wien 1914/15.
Peche officially joined the Wiener Werkstätte as artistic director in the spring of 1915, and continued working with the production company until his early death. Of his friend and long time colleague Hoffmann wrote, "Dagobert Peche was the greatest ornamental genius Austria has produced since the Baroque."
—Courtesy of Neue Galerie
