Two Intertwined Female Figures, circa 1886 - 1949

Mileva Roller

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When Mileva Stoisavlievic married in 1906, her husband Alfred Roller (1864-1935) was twentytwo years her elder and a well-established artist, designing sets for Gustav Mahler at the State Opera. In addition to creating sets for all of Richard Strauss’s operas, Alfred Roller, along with Richard Strauss and Max Reinhardt, founded the Salzburg Festival in 1920.

Mileva studied at the School for Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule). In 1908 she participated in the famous Kunstschau (organized by the Klimt group), which included many decorative art objects. Mileva Roller exhibited a number of colored woodcuts. By 1911 she had two sons, Dietrich and Ulrich (the latter died in the war in 1941). In 1913 she became a member of the Bund Ö sterreichischer Künstler (Austrian Artists’ Union), and in 1915 Gustav Klimt invited her to participate in a Viennese exhibition at the Berlin Secession. A portrait by the fashionable photographer d’Ora (Dora Kallmus) shows Mileva Roller to have been an exceptionally beautiful woman. From her correspondence, preserved in the Alfred Roller Archive (Theatermuseum Wien), one can follow her lively and warm relationship with the creative spirits of her time, such as Gustav Klimt, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Gustav and Alma Mahler, Erwin Lang and many others. Bio via: shepherd gallery, photo via: europeana

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                                       Mileva Roller by Madame d’Ora, 1910-10-29