30 September 2017:

Furniture from the Vienna apartment of the well-to-do Gallia family, completed in 1914, and designed by #JosefHoffmann, now in the NGV. It’s all very unusual and stylish and has a very fraught, amazing backstory.

Hoffmann was a leading light of the c1900 #ViennaSecession movement. He then helped establish the #WienerWerkstatte, makers of fine household objects, in 1903, with financial assistance from Moritz Gallia, a wealthy patron with a Jewish background. A decade later Moritz commissioned the interiors for his family’s new apartment. It’s in Hoffman’s later more stylised traditional approach, lots of fluting and scrolls and crisscross, but quite unique. Hoffman did all the furniture, rugs and lamps, and painted decoration.

By the 1930s the Gallia children, especially the two daughters, kept much of the furniture, silverware, crockery etc in their own apartments, but the dining room set had been left behind, and some furniture must have had already worn out, or didn’t fit. Luckily for them and for us they managed to get themselves and all their possessions out of Vienna, in the desperate days straight after the Anschluss in 1938 when Jews were suddenly forced to leave and anything valuable was confiscated. The furniture and objects (most made by the Vienna Werkstatte) were all considered ‘modern’ and therefore worthless, so they were able to get everything professionally packed and shipped out.

The two sisters and one granddaughter settled in Sydney, squeezing what they could into smaller apartments, and when they died in the 70s, the NSW gallery declined to accept the collection, thinking no one would be interested, but Terry Lane at the #NationalGalleryofVictoria did, and a selection has been on permanent display since 1984.

2021: after the first post, I did more research, read the book by great grandson Tim Bonyhady, then wrote a Wikipedia article ! ‘Gallia family Hoffman Apartment collection’. In the process I realised we’ve only got a small selection of the furniture, the heavier dark timber pieces from the hall and smoking room, the cream and gold timber pieces from the boudoir, plus a reproduction red velvet sofa from that room by Wittman Vienna, one chair from the dining room, and nothing from the main salon. The rooms were much more colourful and comfortable than the few pieces on display imply. Photos go by room, with what’s left followed by an early photo.

March 2025

Went in to the NGV to check it all out again, and was actually overwhelmed a bit by the beauty – I mean, imagine owning them, living with them, using and admiring them every day ! My reaction was partly by knowing the story behind them too, in great detail. It’s now recognised as by far the most complete interior from the Vienna early modern period. Some of the objects are by Hoffman, while some of the ceramics are by Michael Powolny (not quite so modern!). It’s all been redone since I saw it last, with more furniture and objects, lit to really make it sparkle.

• Uncategorized