Adalbert Stifter

Adalbert Stifter , 1805-68, Austrian writer, b. Bohemia. Learned in law, mathematics, and science and accomplished as an artist, he was a tutor to important families and, later, a school inspector. His tales of the Bohemian Forest were widely read in his time and are still acclaimed for their sensitive descriptions of nature and of a simple and beautiful harmony between nature and man. Many of his tales were collected in Studien (6 vol., 1844-50). His late novels, Der Nachsommer (1857) and Witiko (3 vol., 1865-67), are considered diffuse.

Bibliography: See biography by M. Gump (1973).

Stifter, Adalbert (b Horní Planà [German: Iglau], Bohemia, 23 Oct. 1805; d Linz, 28 Jan. 1868). Austrian writer and painter. Up to about 1840 painting took priority in his artistic output, but thereafter he dedicated himself more to writing. He is now regarded as one of the outstanding Austrian novelists of the 19th century, but he enjoyed little success in his lifetime, and full recognition of his stature came only after the First World War. For much of his career he worked as a tutor, then an educational administrator. His later years were clouded by the suicide of an adopted daughter in 1859 and he took his own life, cutting his throat with his razor, whilst suffering agonizing pain from what was thought to be cancer. As a painter he was self-taught, and as in his writing eschewed heroic events in favour of simple, everyday happenings. His sensitive perception of nature comes out in his remarkably fresh landscapes. There is a museum devoted to his work in Vienna.

Stifter, Adalbert (1805–68). Austrian writer and painter. Up to about 1840 painting took priority in his artistic output, but thereafter he dedicated himself more to writing. He is now regarded as one of the outstanding Austrian novelists of the 19th century, but he enjoyed little success in his lifetime, and full recognition of his stature came only after the First World War. For much of his career he worked as a tutor, then an educational administrator. His later years were clouded by the suicide of an adopted daughter in 1859 and he took his own life, cutting his throat with his razor, whilst suffering agonizing pain from what was thought to be cancer. As a painter he was self-taught, and as in his writing eschewed heroic events in favour of simple, everyday happenings. His sensitive perception of nature comes out in his remarkably fresh landscapes. There is a museum devoted to his work in Vienna.