Hilda Jesser

Hilda Jesser (1894 – 1985) was an Austrian artist and designer. Her work is held in the Smithsonian Design Museum and the Toledo Museum of Art. She worked in ceramics, commercial graphics, glass, embroidery and metalwork.

Biography

Jesser was born in 1894 in Marburg an der Drau. Her father was the chief superintendent of the Südbahn Railway Company. In 1912 she enrolled as a guest student at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule (Vienna's University of Applied Arts) and became a full student in 1914. She studied fabric and fashion design and practical skills in lace-making and embroidery.

Jesser was a member of the Wiener Werkstätte, a group of artists based in Vienna, and produced works for the group from 1916 to 1922. She produced designs for ceramics and textiles (lace, embroidery and printed fabrics), interior decoration, glass, china, leather goods and industrial designs. Her ceramic pieces are characterized by a special emphasis was placed on the usability of the ceramics and a deliberate reduction in colour and décor.

In 1922 Jesser was appointed assistant professor at the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule, and in 1935 she became a full professor. In 1938 she was forced to retire by the National Socialists. In 1945, at the end of World War II, she resumed her position at the Kunstgewerbeschule.

Jesser's work has been included in two group exhibitions: in 2021 in Women Artists Of The Wiener Werkstatte, held at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna and in 2022 in Regard! Art and Design by Women 1880–1940, held at Bröhan Museum in Berlin, Germany.