Peche mirror

Dagobert Peche, Made by Max Welz for the Wiener Werkstätte, Mirror Frame carved, painted, and gilded linden wood,1922.

Dagobert Peche was a highly inventive and talented artist who began offering designs to the Wiener Werkstätte in 1911. He officially joined the firm in 1915 and quickly demonstrated his facility as a designer in all mediums, from textiles to wallpaper and from jewelry to glass. In 1922 the Wiener Werkstätte established a relationship with the frame producer Max Welz, and Peche created a series of highly inventive mirror frames, each more lavish than its predecessor. Every one was hand-carved, gilded, and occasionally painted as well. As with most of Peche’s objects, their functional purpose was completely subservient to his artistic vision. Peche’s works often display an unexpected whimsical flair, and he frequently incorporated architectural or mythological references in refreshing ways. When he died in 1923 at age thirty-six of a malignant tumor, architect Josef Hoffmann, a co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, lamented the loss saying, “Dagobert Peche was the greatest ornamental genius Austria has produced since the Baroque.”

Janis Staggs
Associate Curator
Neue Galerie, New York