Edith Hoffmann (1888-1945): the first successful female art historian in Hungary

Abstract

Edith Hoffmann (1888-1945) was the first important and outstanding female art historian in Hungary. She received her PhD in medieval art in 1910 and worked at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest from 1913 until her tragically sudden death. According to her, around 1910 she also attended the classes of Professor Max Dvořák at the University of Vienna. She combined in herself all the virtues of a highly versatile, erudite, theoretical scholar and a practical museum specialist. All this at a time when, as a female intellectual, she had to face many prejudices; still she managed to overcome them. She was in direct daily contact with both the art-historical profession and artists and writers. Not only was she successful as a theorist, with interests ranging from ancient to contemporary art, but as an artist she should also be remembered as an innovator in the genre of shadow painting.

I will partly explore Edith Hoffmann’s career opportunities in the light of contemporary Hungarian society, and partly highlight some of the events and moments that connected her to Vienna through her friendships or her museum work. Among others, her close relationship with Johannes Wilde can be mentioned, with whom she corresponded regularly, but she also maintained her connections to Vienna in her later years as well. After World War I, following the collapse of the Monarchy, she was involved as an expert in the process of distributing cultural goods between Vienna and Hungary. Speaking several languages, including German as a mother tongue, Edith had no difficulty in finding her way around Europe’s major cities, especially Vienna.