painter, scene painter, designer and art teacher, was born in Alsace, France. He had trained as a scene painter and designer and worked at the Paris Opera before becoming involved in the Paris Communes of 1871, resulting in him being transported to New Caledonia. From there he came to Sydney, as did his friend Lucien Henry who modelled his bust in Sydney. Tischbauer was living at 139 Castlereagh Street in 1880 when he showed 'Sketches in Water-colours for Churches and Apartments. Panels for Apartments’ at the Melbourne International Exhibition. He found a job teaching classes in perspective at the Sydney Technical College, Ultimo, where Henry taught modelling (Moore).
In 1883 he showed an oil painting in the third annual NSW Art Society exhibition:
A. Tischbauer has only sent one picture, No. 218, but that is so good that it is worth half a dozen less carefully painted. It is a view of George St., from the north side of Wynyard St., and looking south. The architectural work is finished to the utmost degree, the perspective is simply perfect; not a detail, as regards signs etc., has been omitted and the atmospheric effect is good. Cabs and other vehicles throng the streets, while on the footpaths there is a bustling crowd of pedestrians, several portraits being introduced, among them those of Mr Combes and Mr J.P. Russel [sic]. ( Sydney Morning Herald , 31 March 1883, 5)
John P. Russell himself exhibited a Portrait of A. Tischbauer, Esq. in the same exhibition.
The fourth annual exhibition of the Society followed later that year and Tischbauer showed more street scenes. The SMH (5 October 1883, 8) noted that he 'has made a speciality of street scenes and the representation of long vistas of lofty buildings a la Canaletto’, adding that his views in George Street and Macquarie Street were 'unrivalled in their perspective and the harmony of their colouring’. Several are known to survive.
Two other extant paintings from Tischbauer’s years in Sydney depict the Art Gallery of NSW when still in its original home, the fine arts’ building designed by W.W. Wardell erected at the entrance to the Botanic Gardens for the 1879-80 Sydney International Exhibition. It survived the fire which destroyed the adjacent Garden Palace in 1882, but the structure was declared unsound in 1885 and a new building subsequently begun (part extant within the present gallery). Tischbauer’s undated interior view of the condemned gallery, offered for sale by Hordern House in April 1998 for $24,000, shows the architectural features of Wardell’s building in detail and identifies many of the gallery’s original holdings. Many of the paintings and sculptures on view, mostly British or European, have since been de-accessioned; W. C. Piguenit’s An Australian mangrove, ebb tide, Alphonse de Neuville’s The Defence of Rorke’s Drift; both seen on the left; Keely Halswell’s Non Angli sed Angeli ; seen on the right hand side; and Jean-François Portael’s Esther; at the far end; are among the few that remain regularly on view. The two big bronzes in the middle of the room are still on view in the gallery, but the majority of the oil landscapes and marble heads are rarely seen and many appear to have gone.
At the seventh annual Art Society exhibition in 1886, the Sydney Morning Herald (20 April 1886, 4) noted:
Mr Alfred Tischbauer has two paintings of the National Art Gallery; the one of the central room (74) in oils and the other of the loan room (204) in watercolours. The latter is decidedly the better, but both are of interest. In the former, portraits are given of the trustees of the gallery, Sir Patrick Jennings and Mr. Montefiore being easily recogizable but the figures are not first-class.
In the late 1880s Tischbauer moved to Melbourne where he worked, under the stage name 'Alta’, as a theatre designer for Alfred Dampier, before returning to teaching at Sale, in Gippsland.
Sometime after 1893 – the date on his last known painting of a Sydney subject, a watercolour of Fort Macquarie & Man of War Steps signed 'Alf. Tischbauer’ and dated '13th August '93’ (Bussell) – he left for New York where, according to William Moore, he became a successful scenic artist and theatrical designer.
Tischbauer later moved to Los Angeles, where he died on 1 February 1922.
- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1996
- Last updated:
- 2016
