Richard Teschner and His Puppets

Though I've featured many illustrations and prints by Richard Teschner, until now I hadn't found nice-sized images of his legendary puppets. Enjoy.

Richard Teschner with his puppets, 1914 Most of the photos in this post are copyright of the Theater Museum in Vienna, which is holding a large exhibit on Teschner through April 21, 2014. Repeating from an earlier post:Richard Teschner (1879, Bohemia—1948, Vienna) made prints and illustrated books in turn-of-the-century Prague, hanging out with writers like Meyrink and Paul Leppin and exhibiting with Hugo Steiner-Prag. He finally settled in Vienna and devoted himself to the puppet theater. Brittanica says he "developed the artistic potentialities of the Javanese rod puppet for western puppet theatre." I'll keep digging! (For instance, someone needs to comb through this archive of his puppets.) [update: some photos of Teschner's puppets here.]

The Princess, from "Prinzessin und Wassermann," 1913 From the Theater Museum: "In techniques for rod-puppets, Richard Teschner (1879–1948) set new standards. Teschner, one of the most notable representatives of Viennese art nouveau, was a man of exceptionally diverse gifts: he was a painter, graphic designer, sculptor, puppeteer and much more. With his revolutionary theatre of figures, he created an integrated theatrical work of art encompassing everything from puppets to plays, stagecraft and incidental music. Using the Javanese rod-puppets as his model, he developed a new, expressive puppet variety for his pantomimic plays. Overcoming the traditional proscenium stage led to the unique round of the Figure Mirror, which gave rise to images of great beauty and suggestive effect."