Olga Wisinger-Florian (1844-1926)

Olga Wisinger-Florian was born 1844 in Vienna, her father was a councilor at the Cabinett Office of the Habsburg Monarchy. Her parents promoted her artistic talent and so she received piano and art education. She made an apprenticeship as a pianist in the class of Julius Epstein, but for health reasons she had to quit her musical career. In 1874 Olga Florian married the pharmacist Franz Wisinger, in 1875 she received drawing lessons from Melchior Fritsch and August Schaeffer von Wienwald. From 1880 on she worked in the milieu of the landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler and took part in different exhibitions in the Secession and the Künstlerhaus. Olga Wisinger-Florian participated also in international exhibitions in Munich, Berlin, Prague, London and Paris as well as in the World Exhibitions in Paris and Chicago. She taught other young female artists and committed herself to the rights of women.  Like Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Ada Christen and Bertha von Suttner, Olga Wisinger-Florian was also a member of the Society of Female Artists and Writers. Together with Marie Egner she founded the Society called 8 female artists.

Olga Wisinger-Florian died in 1926 in Grafenegg, in her last years she was very sick, she suffered from cancer and a heavy eye disease.