Regina Leopoldine Blau (Tina) was born in Vienna on November 15, 1845. Antal Hanely, a student of Waldmüller, first gave her tuition in drawing. As the academies only accepted men, academic training was no option. However, with the support of her mother, August Schäffer, she received private tuition. Tina Blau spent six years in Munich (1869–1874) where she encountered the paintings of the Barbizon School. In 1872 she met Eugen Jettel and Emil Jakob Schindler; Schindler and Blau started sharing a studio in 1875. Early successes gave the artist the opportunity to spend time in Rome, Naples, Paris, Munich and Szolnok, where she met August von Pettenkofen.
In 1880 she moved to her studio at the Prater in Vienna; its scenery featured thereafter in many of her landscapes. In 1897 she founded an art school for women and girls in Vienna with Adalbert Franz Seligmann and taught the classes on landscapes and still lifes until 1916. She regularly contributed to exhibitions at the Künstlerhaus in Vienna and her work featured at the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873. Blau was given many awards and honours, including a “Mention Honorable” at the Paris Salon in 1883, the silver medal in Salzburg, the Golden King Ludwig Medal in Munich and a medal at the World’s Fair in Chicago. From 1904 onwards, she travelled extensively, journeying to Sylt, Hamburg, Copenhagen, Paris, London and around Austria. Tina Blau died in Vienna on October 13, 1916.
