Strike a pose - portraits by Franz Xaver Setzer

 

Maria Jeritza in the title role of Turandot, 1926. 

Opera singer and sculptor Helge Lindberg, circa 1920.

Betty Fischer in Die Königin, 1927.

 Toni Birkmeyer in Prinz Karneval, 1927.

Gusti Pichler as Sulamith in Josefslegende, 1922.

Carina Ari (Maria Karina Viktoria Jansson) in "Anitra’s Dance," 1922. Two images.

Nora Gregor as Thaisa in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1937.

Conrad Veidt as Cesare in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920.

Grete Wiesenthal in Schwingen im Licht, 1924.

Leopoldine Konstantin in Das Weib und der Hampelmann, 1918.

Lena Amsel, 1918.

Mizzi Günther, 1918.

Riki Raab in Der Liebeszauber, 1929. Two images.

Raoul Aslan as Emperor Joseph II, 1937.

Marie Gutheil-Schoder - the photographer's wife - in the title role of Carmen, circa 1922.

Grete Wiesenthal in Der Taugenichts in Wien, 1930.

Hedy Pfundmayr in Ravel, 1923.

Maria Jeritza in the title role of Turandot, 1926. Two images.

Maria Ley, 1925.

Ellen Petz with her ensemble, circa 1920s.

Elsie Altmann-Loos as Miss Mabel Gibson in Die Zirkusprinzessin, 1926.

 Walter Slezak, circa 1922.

Hedy Pfundmayr in Schéhérazade, 1923.

Conrad Veidt as Cesare in Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari, 1920.

Toni Birkmeyer, 1923.

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Franz Xaver Setzer (born Franz Anton Adolf Setzer; 6 August 1886, Vienna – 10 January 1939, Vienna), Austrian photographer. After receiving his training at the Imperial Royal Institute of Prints and Drawings, he founded his own studio in 1909. The well-lit studio in the attic of the Museumstrasse 5 in the 7th district in Vienna was - as an early advertising card described - equipped with "a lift and a telephone", and personalities from the theatre and opera, music and literary scenes became enthusiastic patrons. In 1917 he received the Voigtländer Medal of the Photographic Society. He married the opera singer Marie Gutheil-Schoder in 1920, and this marriage expanded his social position; in addition to those in the Arts, aristocrats and politicians and the like were increasingly included among his clientele. In spite of competing for the same portrait subjects, it appears he had friendly relationships with his contemporary photographic colleagues, such as Madame d'Ora and Arthur Benda. The global economic crisis of the 1930s had a serious impact on his business and, also dealing with health concerns, he withdrew from the daily running of the studio. Marie Karoline Tschiedel, who had been his assistant for more than a decade, became the technical director of the studio in 1934, and increasingly assumed overall responsibility for the business. Setzer died at the age of fifty-two in 1939. Tschiedel took over the studio from his heirs and continued it under the name Setzer-Tschiedel until 1980.