Background
Ažbe was born in Dolenčice, Slovenia, on May 30, 1862, into a peasant family. He had a twin brother Alois.
Vienna, Austria
Anton Ažbe entered the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1882, where he studied for two years.
Munich, Germany
In 1884 Ažbe attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Portrait of Anton Ažbe.
Bust of Anton Ažbe in Leopold Park in Munich.
Ažbe was born in Dolenčice, Slovenia, on May 30, 1862, into a peasant family. He had a twin brother Alois.
Orphaned at a young age, Anton Ažbe spent much of his childhood in a foster family. Because he was small and weak, and his spine was deformed, after completing an elementary school, Ažbe was trained to work in a grocery store.
However, after five years of living and working at a grocery store, he ran off to Ljubljana and started to hang out with artists. It turned out that Anton Ažbe had a talent for painting and he eventually entered the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1882, where he studied for two years. But Anton Ažbe was completely dissatisfied with obsolete, uninspiring Viennese training and scarcely made passing grades.
In 1884 Ažbe attended the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich. This academy was much more liberal and modern. There he was introduced to the latest trends and theories in European art. Anton Ažbe made an excellent impression on his teachers Gabriel Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz and managed to earn a free scholarship. Half of the artist's surviving legacy dates back to the Munich Academy years. By the end of his studies, he was acknowledged as a professional portrait painter and was regularly exhibited in the Glaspalast.
Ažbe was offered the informal job of examining and correcting the students' paintings. The seven clients rented a study room and paid Ažbe for helping with their homework. In 1891 he was able to open his own studio and private painting school in Munich. Initially, his small school took about twenty students. Soon, as the students flowed to him in crowds and their number reached more than a hundred, Ažbe had to move into a separate building in Georgenstraße, the garden house of the architect Friedrich von Thiersch. The total number of Ažbe alumni stood at around 150.
Among his students were Alexej von Jawlensky, Iwan Jakowlewitsch Bilibin, Vasiliy Kandinsky, Karl Friedrich Lippmann, Franziska Gräfin zu Reventlow, Marianne von Werefkin, Hans Huber-Sulzemoos, Erma Bossi and Eugeniusz Zak.
Anton Ažbe was the only instructor of the school, except for a brief period in 1899-1900 when he hired Igor Grabar as his assistant. His main competitors, the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, and the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg (now Ilya Repin St. Petersburg State Academic Institute for Painting, Sculpture and Architecture), recognized Ažbe school and recommended it as either a preparatory or "refreshment" course.
Portrait of a Dalmatian girl
Old woman with a headscarf
Study of a man
Self-portrait
Portrait of a girl
Zamorka (Black Girl)
Sitting old man nude
Portrait of a Bavarian man
Portrait of a girl
Portrait of a girl
Study of a man
Portrait of a man in a bow tie
The Harem (Sketch)
In a Studio
Hermit
Half Nude
The Village Choir
Standing Male Nude
Sitting Male Nude in Profile
Allegorical composition
Still life with roses and mallows
Ažbe was known as a demanding teacher, and his students would spend hours studying the intricacies of the human figure. He urged his students to focus on "the main line" rather than insignificant details.
Anton Ažbe always wore black; in winter his attire was complete with a tall oriental karakul hat. His slow, awkward walk caused him to be teased by children, and he was even ridiculed by Munich cartoonists. His German was not perfect; he, particularly, abused the word nähmlich ("namely", "that is...") and was called "Professor Nähmlich". He didn't have a proper home and slept in his studio. He often went on drunken binges in neighborhood beerhalls. Their owners regularly allowed a drunken Ažbe to sleep on their premises.
In his later years, he was getting more and more sedentary and replaced his daily walkouts with a circle ride on a tram. Ažbe never hesitated offering free tuition to students in need and lending them cash.
Physical Characteristics: Anton Ažbe was a man of a very short and irregular stature. He had an unusually short and weak legs, with a twisted upper spine. Ažbe's head combined a large skull with a disproportionately narrow face. A lifelong smoker, Anton Ažbe developed throat cancer and by the spring of 1905 he could barely swallow food.
Quotes from others about the person
Leonhard Frank: "Nobody ever saw his [Anton Ažbe's] paintings. Nobody knew if he ever painted at all. Nobody knew his past. One chilly December night, intoxicated with cognac, he fell asleep in the snow. He was found dead in the morning. Nobody knew where he had come from."
Ažbe never married. He himself mentioned that he was engaged twice. However, both marriage attempts failed. He had romantic affairs with Kathi Kobus, an owner of the Simpli pub. But they both took the secret of this relationship to their graves.