Josef Moroder-Lusenberg

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #6495ED
name = Josef Moroder-Lusenberg

---

imagesize = 220px
caption = Josef Moroder Lusenberg and wife Annamaria Sanoner
birthname =
birthdate = May 28 1846
location = Urtijëi
deathdate = February 16 1939
deathplace = Urtijëi
nationality = Austrian, Italian
field = painting, sculpture
training = Academy of Fine Arts Munich
movement = Munich School
works =
patrons =
influenced by = Franz von Defregger
influenced =
awards =

Josef Theodor Moroder, named the Lusenberger (28 May 1846 in Urtijëi - 16 February 1939 in Urtijëi) was a painter and sculptor, the most prominent artist of the Moroder family from Gherdëina - Val Gardena – Gröden in Italy.

Life

Josef, the fourth of 8 children, lost his father when he was 8 years old. He was apprenticed in a woodcarving studio under Franz Prinoth, an academic sculptor educated in the Munich Academy, and in his 20s Josef started his own studio. Examples of his early activity as a sculptor are the statues of the Maria Addolorata and of the Virgin Mary in the parish church of Urtijëi.

His first wife, Annamaria Sanoner died after she gave birth to their fourth child in 1874. He married Felizitas Unterplatzer who gave birth to eleven other children. She also took care of his farm and was active as an antiquarian. Thirty years old, with the support of Felizitas, he visited the Academy of Munich (1876-1880) to learn the art of painting after he was impressed in Vienna by the genre painting of Franz von Defregger, “the dance in the mountains”. His teachers in Munich were Joseph Knabl, Ludwig von Löfftz und Feodor Dietz. 1880 to 1884 he was a pupil of Defregger; becoming close friends, they took many painting trips through the villages of the Trentino.

In Munich Josef Moroder was influenced by the genre and historical painting of his masters Defregger and the realistic-idealistic painting movement of Wilhelm Leibl. From his numerous sketch books we can see how precisely he observed nature, landscape and specially the Tyrolean and alpine lifestyle in Gherdëina. Many of his paintings, watercolours and sketches of and farmhouses, huts, people and portraits are testimony of a lost alpine world which once was the 19th century Tyrol.

The populist-romantic novelist Maria Veronika Rubatscher was well acquainted with the artist and wrote his biography in 1930, which became a popular novel.

One of his pupils was Ludwig Moroder-Lenert. Most of Josef's children, Johann Baptist, Alfons, Josef, Otto, Hermann, became valid sculptors. His son Alfons (1882 -1960) settled in Milwaukee where he set up a business to sell altars for churches and statues of saints partially produced by him or imported from his native village, Urtijëi.

Exhibitions

A major Exhibition was held in Innsbruck in 1973 and his watercolours were shown in Bolzano Italy in 1985.

The Museum of Gherdëina in Urtijëi exhibits more than 30 of his oil paintings and watercolours. [http://www.provincia.bz.it/museenfuehrer/english/detail.asp?ORGA_ID=668 Museum of Gherdëina]

References

Bibliography (in German)

* Maria Veronika Rubatscher. "Der Lusenberger. Der Roman eines Künstlerlebens." München: Verlag Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, 1930 (Reprint Athesia Bozen, 1980 ISBN 88-7024-384-2 or ISBN 88-7014-123-3).
* Komitee für die Drucklegung des Moroder-Stammbuches. "Die Moroder, ein altladinisches Geschlecht aus Gröden-Dolomiten. Vom 14. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Ursprung - Geschichte - Biographien - Anhang. Beitrag zur tirolischen Familienforschung" - Edited by the Moroder Book committee, Urtijei 1980. Pages 188-204. (Book mainly in German, with some minor parts in English, Italian, Spanish and Ladin). British Library LF.31.a.1348.
* Sybille-Karin Moser. Tiroler Bilder und Ihre Darstellung. Malerei von 1830 bis 1900. S. 519. Aus: Kunst in Tirol. Herausgeber: Paul Naredi-Rainer, Lukas Madersbacher.Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia Innsbruck und Verlagsanstalt Athesia Bozen 2007. ISBN 978-3-7022-2776-0 - ISBN 978-88-8266-409-1.

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/alpinus5/lusenberger/lusenberg.html Other painting and images]
* [http://fetalmedicine.tripod.com/tlancon/ Drawings from Josef Moroder's sketchbooks]

Gallery

Persondata
NAME = Moroder-Lusenberg, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Moroder-Lusenberg, Josef Theodor
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Austrian-Italian Painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH = 28 May 1846
PLACE OF BIRTH = Urtijëi, Italy
DATE OF DEATH = 16 February 1939
PLACE OF DEATH = Urtijëi, Italy