Erica Tietze-Conrat

Erica Tietze-Conrat (born June 20, 1883 Vienna, died December 12, 1958 in New York City, also known as Erika Conrat, Erica Tietze) was an Austrian-American art historian, one of the first women to study art history, a strong supporter of contemporary art in Vienna and an art historian specializing in Renaissance art and the Venetian school drawings.

Erica Conrat came from a prominent Jewish family in Vienna, which had converted to Protestantism. She was the youngest of three sisters, and the oldest, Ilse Conrat was a sculptor. The father Hugo Conrat (also known as Hugo Cohn) was an avid music lover and friends of Johannes Brahms. Erica was highly musical, played the piano and was among others friends with Alexander von Zemlinsky and Arnold Schoenberg, through which they met Karl Kraus. They also shared a long-standing friendship with Alma Mahler.

Erica Conrat studied art history at the University of Vienna from 1902 until 1905 under Franz Wickhoff and Alois Riegl and in 1905 received her doctorate with dissertation contributions to the history of Georg Raphael Donner. She was the first woman who completed the study of art history at the University of Vienna with a doctorate. In the same year Erica married fellow student Hans Tietze, he was also studying art history during the same time. This was the first "Vienna School" art history program. Europe lacked significant teaching positions for women at the time, so frequently Erica would assist her husband in research and eventually they became a research team. Between 1908 and 1910 the Tietzes had four children.

Erica and Hans Tietze were friends with many contemporary artists including Oskar Kokoschka who was commissioned to paint them in 1909, the portrait is now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The sculptor Georg Ehrlich created two bronze busts of Hans and Erica Tietze which are now in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, as well as numerous portrait drawings of Erica Tietze.

...
Wikipedia