Eigenberger, Robert [Karl Reigen, pseud.]

Date born: 1890

Place born: Sedlitz (Bohemia)

Date died: 1979

Place died: Vienna, Austria

Director of the Picture Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der Bildenden Künste) 1926-29, 33-65, Vienna. Eigenberger studied art history at the universities of Prague, Munich and Göttingen, receiveing his Ph.D., in 1913 in Berlin. He served in the First World War (1915-16). After working in the cultural monuments division of the Austrian Ministry of Culture, he was curator (Kustos) at the Picture Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in 1922. He was made director in 1926. As the first director who was not exclusively an artist, Eigenberger reduced the exhibited to only objects of the highest quality and grouped them by schools. He also stopped the practice of "restoration" by retouching. Instead, beginning in the 1920s, he worked in conjunction with scientific experts to restore paintings using more appropriate materials. Eigenberger took over the fledgling "Meisterschule für Konservierung und Technologie" at the Academy in 1933, a facility that grew into the east wing of the museum. His service was suspended briefly in 1945 after World War II. He was reappointed and remained director until 1961, and retired as professor in 1965. Eigenberger was also a painter, a member of the Vienna Secession, and won the 1930 Austrian State Prize for painting.

Home Country: Austria

Sources: Dr. Robert Eigenberger: 14. Februar 1890-14. April 1979 : Gedächtnisausstellung. Vienna: Akademie der Bildenden Künste, 1980; Trenk, Renate. The Picture Gallery of the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Vienna: Böhlau, 2002, p. 24; "Master School for Conservation/Restoration, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna." http://www.ffcr-fr.org/format/europe/autri/autriche.htm; Meissner, G. "Eigenberger, Robert." Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. vol. 32. Leipzig: K.G. Saur, 2002, p. 545.

Bibliography: Die Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildende Künste in Wien. Vienna: Manz, 1927; Peter Paul Rubens. Vienna: Kunstverlag Wolfrum, 1955.