Three Designs for Playing Cards

Carl Otto Czeschka (1878-1969)
Austrian School
Three Designs for Playing Cards, c. 1906

Gouache, pen and ink, and graphite, on off-white board
each measuring 4.75″ × 3.2″ (unframed)
each measuring 7.5″ × 9.25″ (framed)

Czeschka began designing postcards and illustrations while he was still a student at the Academy (1894-99). The range of his work is typical for an artist in the early twentieth century Vienna, when Decorative Arts became equal to Fine Arts. Czeschka painted frescoes, designed sets (king Lear for Max Rennhart), illustraded luxury editions, designed calendars, programs, ex libris, fonts for printing, interiors (Palais Stoclet), – and the present playing cards. He was a member of the Vienna Secession and taught at the School of Applied Arts, where Oskar Kokoschka was one of his students.