Net­work Vi­enna 1900

Anton Carl Schuster

Anton Carl Schuster, back of coaster box
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna

Anton Carl Schuster was the son of photographer Carl Schuster. While he also worked as an academic painter, he was known above all as a portrait, landscape, and town photographer in Vienna, his animal photographs from Schönbrunn Zoo in particular gaining widespread popularity.

Anton Carl (also A. Carl or Karl) Schuster was born in Vienna on 1 August 1866 as son of the photographer Carl (or Karl) Schuster and in 1889/90 attended the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt. He is known to have run a studio at No. 6 Meidlinger Hauptstraße near Theresienbadpark in Vienna’s 12th District starting in 1893. In addition to portraits, he also photographed Viennese street scenes and presented an impressive panorama of Laxenburg made up of several individual prints at the “1889 Jubilee Exhibition” at the Rotunda. The magazine Photographische Correspondenz reported on the event as follows:

“A. Karl Schuster, academic painter and photographer, attracts attention through a green painted Secessionist showcase. The man is a landscape photographer and presents a panorama of Laxenburg approximately 2 meters long and put together so skillfully that one does not notice the joints at all.”

Gallery

  • Gustav Klimt: Picture postcard from Gustav Klimt in Vienna to Emilie Flöge in Litzlberg an Attersee, 08/01/1901, Leopold Privatsammlung
    © Leopold Museum, Vienna
  • Photographed at court by Anton Carl Schuster, around 1910
    © Wien Museum
  • Old Naschmarkt photographed by Anton Carl Schuster, around 1914
    © Wien Museum

Nature photographs by Anton Carl Schuster, in: Gerlach & Co. (Hg.): Die Quelle. IV. Das Thierleben in Schönbrunn, Vienna - Leipzig 1904.
© Klimt Foundation, Vienna

Around 1899/1900 he documented the “Regulation of the Wien River in the Meidling and Hietzing Region” and in 1903 was admitted to the Photographic Society as a member. One year later, Martin Gerlach published the fourth volume of the pioneering photo-historical series Die Quelle [“The Source”], entitled Das Thierleben in Schönbrunn [“Animal Life in Schönbrunn”], which was illustrated with “nature shots” by Schuster. Some of his animal photographs from Schönbrunn Zoo were published as picture postcards by Schneider & Lux, which Gustav Klimt used several times for his correspondence.

From 1908, Anton Carl Schuster was a member of the Cooperative of Photographers in Vienna and around 1909 moved his studio to No. 287 Schönbrunnerstraße. In 1928 he opened another branch of his company at No. 3 Marsanogasse. He retired in the winter of 1930/31 and died in Vienna on 13 December 1945.

Further contents

Literature and sources

  • Schüler-Verzeichnis. Schuljahr 1889/90, .
  • Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 11.11.1893, S. 17.
  • Adolph Lehmann's allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger. Nebst Handels- u. Gewerbe-Adressbuch für d. k. k. Reichshaupt- u. Residenzstadt Wien u. Umgebung, 40. Jg., Band 1 (1898), S. 684.
  • N. N.: Verzeichnis sämtlicher Mitglieder der Genossenschaft der Photographen in Wien für 1908, Vienna 1908.
  • Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 21.03.1909, S. 102.
  • Agnes Husslein-Arco, Alfred Weidinger (Hg.): Klimt & Emilie Flöge. Fotografien, Vienna 2012, S. 21-25, S. 234.
  • Wiener Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Akt 3.2.3.P1.214234D - Regulierung des Wienflusses, 1899, 1900. www.wien.gv.at/actaproweb2/benutzung/archive.xhtml (04/30/2020).
  • Taufbuch 1866/67 (Tomus 65), röm.-kath. Pfarre St. Ulrich, Wien, fol. 93.
  • L. Schrank: Rückblicke auf die Jubiläums-Ausstellung 1898, in: Photographische Correspondenz, 35. Jg., Nummer 459 (1898), S. 641.
  • Photographische Correspondenz, 40. Jg., Nummer 509 (1903), S. 109.
  • Ansichtskarte von Gustav Klimt in Wien an Emilie Flöge in Litzlberg an Attersee (01.08.1901). RL 2622, .
  • N. N.: September, in: Stadt Wien - Presse- und Informationsdienst (Hg.): Amtsblatt der Stadt Wien, Jg. XIII, Nummer 71, Vienna 1904, S. 1686.
  • N. N.: Eröffnung einer weiteren Betriebsstätte, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung. Gewerbliches Fachblatt der Photographen Österreichs, 10. Jg., Heft 3 (1928), S. 6.
  • N. N.: Gewerberücklegungen, in: Allgemeine Photographische Zeitung. Gewerbliches Fachblatt der Photographen Österreichs, 13. Jg., Heft 2 (1931), S. 6.
  • Timm Starl: Fotografen, Druckanstalten, Kunsthandel, Verlage, in: Timm Starl (Hg.): Blickfänge einer Reise nach Wien. Fotografien 1860–1910 aus den Sammlungen des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, Katalog zur 262. Sonderausstellung, Ausst.-Kat., Museums of the City of Vienna (Vienna), 22.06.2000–29.10.2000, Vienna 2000, S. 193.
  • Sammlung Albertina. www.sammlungenonline.albertina.at/biobibliographie (04/30/2020).
  • Adolph Lehmann's allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger. Nebst Handels- u. Gewerbe-Adressbuch für d. k. k. Reichshaupt- u. Residenzstadt Wien u. Umgebung, 56. Jg., Band 1 (1914), S. 1349.