Stephanie Hollenstein

Stephanie Hollenstein (18 July 1886 – 24 May 1944) was an Austrian Expressionist landscape and still-life painter. A member of the Nazi Party, Hollenstein was lesbian and tried to defend fellow-artists against charges of degeneracy, though usually without success. She was nicknamed Die Schiefmalerin, meaning the Crooked Lady Painter.

Biography Hollenstein was born to a peasant farming family in 1886, and initially worked as a cowherd in Lustenau, Vorarlberg. Her first paintings were made at that time, featuring animals and shepherds, with brushes made from animal hair and colors from berries. on the strength of the drawings she presented as samples. After completing the courses there in 1908 and earning a distinction grade, In 1913, upon the recommendation of Franz von Defregger, she was awarded a scholarship that enabled her to study for a year in Italy.

World War I

At the beginning of World War I, in Summer 1914, she completed a Red Cross Nursing training course. She dressed in male clothes and was deployed to the Tyrolean war zone near Bolzano in May 1915. however, and she was assigned as a war painter for the Austro-Hungarian Army’s "" (War Press Bureau). In that capacity, she was sent to the Italian front on three occasions and, in 1916, was among the first recipients of the Karl Troop Cross. She later received numerous commissions from the Museum of Military History. An application for the title of "Professor" was denied on the grounds that she was a strictly local artist whose work often did not set a good example.

She resigned her position for health reasons. The following year, she suffered a heart attack and died shortly after. Her remains were returned to Lustenau for burial. A municipal art gallery named in her honor was opened in 1971, which houses most of her extant work (1,114 numbered items).

Selected paintings