Carl Moll

1861 Vienna - 1945 Vienna

Carl Moll was born in Vienna on 23 April 1861. Between 1879 and 1881, he studied with Christian Griepenkerl at the Vienna Academy. He enrolled as a private student with Emil Jakob Schindler in 1881 and later became a close family friend. Moll travelled extensively with Schindler to Croatia and Dalmatia, Greece and Germany. In 1890 Moll first showed his work at the annual exhibition in the Vienna Künstlerhaus, of which he became a member in 1894. In 1895 he married Anna Schindler, his friend and teacher’s widow. In the following years, Vienna’s renowned artists, such as Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Koloman Moser and Max Kurzweil, often congregated at this studio. It was with these artists that he founded the Vienna Secession in 1897 after they had separated from the Künstlerhaus. In 1900 Moll also became a member of the Berlin Secession. That same year, he was awarded a silver medal at the Paris Exposition Universelle and the Order of the Iron Crown in Vienna. From around 1901 onwards, he became a close friend of Gustav Mahler's, who later married Moll’s stepdaughter Alma. In 1905 he was part of the “Klimt Group” that left the Vienna Secession and he was also Art Director of the Galerie Miethke. He supported young Austrian artists, including Oskar Kokoschka. In 1931 he was awarded the Golden State Medal and was made a Viennese citizen of honour. He committed suicide with his daughter Maria and her husband on 13 April 1945 after Russian troops marched into Vienna.