Koloman Moser (1868, Vienna-1918, Vienna) was a portrait, genre, and landscape painter as well as a graphic designer. From 1885 to 1892, he attended the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste (Academy of Fine Arts), studying graphic design and painting under Christian Griepenkerl and Franz Rumpler. From 1888 Moser worked in his own studio producing fashion drawings and illustrations for Wiener Mode and Meggendorfers Humoristiche Blätter.

In 1892 he transferred to the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) at the Vienna Museum. From 1899, onwards he also taught there. Along with Gustav Klimt and Carl Moll, Moser was one of the original founding members of the Vienna Secession, a group of artists who had split off in protest from the academic constraints imposed by the Künstlerhaus (Austrian Artist’s Society).

Moser later followed Klimt out of the group and co-founded the Wiener Werkstätte in 1903 along with Joseph Hoffmann. The aim of the Wiener Werkstätte was to ensure that fine art and the decorative and applied arts were on an equal footing.

As a result, all objects produced by the Wiener Werkstätte bear not only the designer's mark but also that of the craftsman who executed the design. Great importance was attached to ensuring the highest quality standards of workmanship and materials.

During his life Moser directed his attention to every sphere of applied art, designing furniture, glass, metalware, jewelry, posters, toys and interiors. As a designer he sought to combine the classic lines of Greco-Roman art with the Zen like qualities of Eastern art, and thus helped to create a whole new art form, Art Nouveau. His influence on the way graphic art developed was profound and lasting.

Source: Wikipedia, Ketterer Kunst; Benezit’s Art Dictionary; artnouveau.com; and Art Agency Gerald Weinpolter.

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