Hans Figura (1898-1978) Austrian, Signed Vertical Landscape Silkscreen Print. Stunning image of approaching nightime with Austrian mountains in the distance and a stark set of tall pines in the foreground. Signed in pencil bottom right. 

Overall Size: 26 x 21 1/4 in. 

Sight Size: 17 1/4 x 14 1/4 in. 

Hans Figura was born January 22nd, 1898 in the small town of Nagy-Kikinda, Serbia, near the Austro-Hungarian border. His father was a railway official and he spent his childhood in various small villages along the railway line between Vienna and Hungary. Hans received training at the Graphic Arts Education and Research Institute, as well as studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and spending two years at the Higher Graphical Federal Education and Research Institute. Figura was drafted and served as an officer in the Austrian Army during World War I on the Russian and Italian fronts. After the war he attended medical school at the University of Vienna for several years beginning in 1918, and although he passed his state exam he eventually decided that he preferred the arts to medicine. He took drawing and painting courses at the University and at the adult education center, and when his parents both died in 1922 he decided to devote himself to painting and etching fully. Throughout the 20s he worked in other artistic and printing mediums, making numerous trips to study art and architecture in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. His first group showing in the United States took place in 1924, leading to a trip there in 1929 for a solo exhibition. Throughout the 1930s until the outbreak of World War II he  maintained studios in both New York City and Vienna, Austria, and after the war he resumed work in Europe, though his output was significantly lessened. Over the course of his life Figura created over 850 etchings, mostly in color, of the historical tourist landscapes and cityscapes of Europe, using primarily aquatint, similar to his colleagues Luigi Kasimir and Josef Eidenberger, and many depict places no longer visitable after their destruction during World War II or dismantling behind the Iron Curtain. Figura died on February 17th, 1978 in his Vienna studio.