Anton Prinner (1902-1983) - Self-portrait - Oil On Canvas - Height 92 Cm.

Anton PRINNER (1902-1983)
Self-Portrait, around 1950-1955
Oil on canvas, signed at the bottom in the middle.
Slight lack of material at the edge at the top left of the canvas and trace of the frame. Dimensions: 92 x 73cm.

Notes: Anna Prinner was born in Budapest in 1902 and left Hungary in 1927 never to return. Settling in Paris, she adopts a masculine identity and name, dresses like a man and smokes a pipe. ““Sculptor” has no feminine,”, she will explain later.
At the same time, Anton Prinner opens himself to the study of occult sciences and earns his living as a caricaturist in nightclubs. The 1930s are those of the discovery of engraving, then of sculpture of totemic figures, medium and personal style through which the artist becomes known and appreciated. Success is very close.
However, Anton abandons Paris for Vallauris and ceramics. The post-war period was difficult, Prinner was robbed of works in his studio and decided to abandon sculpture to return to painting. In 1985, the first biography dedicated to Anton Prinner appeared, signed by Monique Briant and Jean-Claude Binoche (Binoche and Godeau editions). Y was mentioned the existence of a self-portrait, appearing alongside Pablo Picasso and painted in 1948. The latter mischievously called the artist of Hungarian origin «the little green peak» due to his stature and his sculptures practiced in direct pruning in tree trunks.
In 2006, the museum of the Abbey of Sainte-Croix, in Sables-d'Olonne, opened its spaces to the artist and hung two self-portraits. The one presented here, probably created between 1950 and 1955, is another.

Cf. Catalogue of the artist’s retrospective at the museum of the Abbey Sainte-Croix in Sables d’ Ollone in 2006, p 142.