Aignersteg
1200 Brigittenau

 12,00

Pages: 20 + cover
Edition: 5 + artists copy (first edition)

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Aignersteg, footbridge for cyclists and pedestrians, which crosses the Handelskai and the Donauuferbahn; named on March 9, 1999 after Josef Matthäus Aigner.

Aigner, * January 18, 1818 Vienna, † February 19, 1886 was the son of a goldsmith. He first learned his father’s craft, but turned to painting at an early stage. He worked in the studio of Amerling and developed into an important portrait artist. He portrayed, among others, Emperor Franz Joseph I, Empress Elisabeth, Franz Grillparzer, Friedrich Halm and Nikolaus Lenau. On behalf of the Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, he copied pictures in the Belvedere that were intended for the museum in Mexico.

As commander of the Academic Legion, he took part in the October fighting in Vienna in 1848, was captured and sentenced to death by high court for treason on November 23, 1848, but was pardoned by Prince Windisch-Graetz after the intervention of influential friends.

From 1864 he was a member of the Künstlerhaus. From 1883 to 1886 he was a member of the Vienna City Council (as a member of the Progress Club, he stood for the German culture of Vienna). As a member of the district school council, he opposed the establishment of a Czech school in Vienna. Since 1847 he was married to actress Fanny Matras (* 1828; † 1878). In 1874, Aigner was accepted into the Masonic Lodge Future.  He died from suicide.