About the artist

Josef Franz Maria Hoffmann was an Austrian architect and designer who was involved in the foundation of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte he founded in 1903. The Stoclet Palace in Bruxelles is generally viewed upon as his most important piece of work and the end of the Jugendstil. Hoffmann studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, under the guidance of Karl Hasenauer and Otto Wagner. Together with Joseph Olbrich, Hoffmann founded the Vienna Secession in 1897. In 1903 Hoffmann would found the Wiener Werkstätte, for which he designed furniture, glassware, cutlery, jewellery and other pieces of design. The Wiener Werkstätte would exist until 1932. Furthermore, Hoffmann was a teacher at the Vienese Academy of Applied Arts from 1899 until 1937. He was the first to receive the Grand Austrian State Prize for his life's work in 1950. He passed away in 1956 at the age of 86.
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