Lilly Steiner, née Hofmann (painter, graphic artist)
Born on 7.4.1884 in Vienna. She was taught by Ludwig Michalek at the Art School for Women and Girls in Vienna and then married the industrialist Hugo Steiner in 1904. He had been to school with Karl Kraus and was a friend and patron of Adolf Loos from 1903. Lilly Steiner did not follow her career as an artist until about 1917.
She was a corresponding and extraordinary member of the Hagenbund artist association and a member of the etching club of Vienna’s Women Artists.
Portraits of women and children and the subject of motherhood were important aspects of her oeuvre. After 1937 she drew on political events in her art. Of her series of graphic works, her lithographs illustrating Arnold Schönberg’s "Gurrelieder" and on the subject "Mother" are the most renowned.
In 1927 the Steiners moved to Paris. In Paris she received the acclaim which she had never enjoyed in Austria. Lilly Steiner created numerous graphic portfolios and illustrations. Her studies of conductors and artists like Alban Berg, Arturo Toscanini or Aristide Maillol are some of the best works in her oeuvre.
Lilly Steiner’s signature, 1923:
