Our Daily News Letter

The bad economic conditions have become almost like a permanent feature in Austria. We are having what might be termed a chronic crisis here and there has even been created a considerable literature on this subject, a literature on our indigence. We also have musical pieces composed on this unfortunate economic state of ours. A popular song which one can hear in every cabaret and vaudeville nowadays runs something like this : “I have no money, you have no money and we’re all broke!”

Under such terrible economic conditions there are, naturally, no art collectors and connisseurs, so that to be an artist here is equivalent to starving.

The Jewish artists in Vienna are worse off than anybody else. Vienna is the city where one could always find Jewish artists of international reputation, and during the war they succeeded in getting their share of the prosperity which for some time prevailed here owing to the rise of the currency. There were many individual Jews who amassed considerable fortunes and of course when a Jewish “nouveau riche” buys works of art it is unavoidable, so to say, that a few Jewish motifs should creep in among the other canvasses. In those days, therefore, the Jewish artists did quite a little business. But today their condition is worse that ever and valuable canvasses of Professor Yehuda Epstein, Lazar Krestin, Wilhelm Wachtel and others remain unsold. A few individual Jewish artists had earned enough before to make it possible for them to endure the present state of poverty and will probably be in a position to tide over another few years in comparative security. But the majority of them are in bad straits and cannot extricate themselves from the unbearable situation.

You visit Krestin’s or Wachtel’s studies, for instance, and you are overwhelmed by the number and brilliance of their canvasses. All these are recent creations. Krestin’s studies and portraits have enjoyed an international reputation for years now. His work multiplies rapidly for he is as energetic and industrious as a bee. But he subsists these days largely on the spiritual satisfaction of his varied and rich creations. He paints ten new canvasses before he succeeds in selling one. All the praise and commendation of the best critics is of no avail. There is a dearth of money in Vienna and there is nothing for it but to starve if one happens to be an artist.

Wilhelm Wachtel is just as badly off as Krestin. Recently he spent several months in Palesine and the Orient where he gave free play to his phantasy and his pencil which resulted in a collection of two score or so of canvasses of wonderful vigor and originality; landscapes and portraits of the new Palestine which should be a treasured possession not only in private homes but likewise in art galleries and museums.

The creative spirit of the artists does not rest even though the wolf is knocking at their door. Some of them have gone to America in search of better luck. But have American Jews time to sit for portraits?