The figure of the genius watercolourist Erwin Hubert (1883-1963) cannot be understood without the figure of the great patron of the island of Mallorca, Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Habsburg-Lorraine. The tandem they formed resulted in a decisive cultural and artistic impulse for 20th-century Mallorca, while also being a pioneer in promoting the Balearic Islands as a tourist destination.
Erwin Hubert was born in Vienna. He studied at the Academy of Graphic Arts in his hometown and worked for the publishing house Eduard Holzel, a graphic company that printed the maps for the works of Archduke Ludwig Salvator. In 1904, he left the publishing house to become the Archduke’s personal secretary, traveling for the first time to Mallorca and settling at the «Miramar» mansion (Valldemossa), the Archduke’s residence. Together, they sailed the Mediterranean aboard the famous yacht «Nixe II,» owned by Ludwig Salvator. On these trips, the young artist already left a mark of his skill as a draughtsman and painter with his drawings and watercolours.
He returned to his native Vienna in 1910 but continued collaborating with the Archduke until his death in 1915. In 1920, he permanently returned to Mallorca, settling once again with his wife at «Miramar» to devote himself exclusively to painting. That same year, he exhibited his first watercolours with folkloric, popular, and landscape motifs of Mallorca at the «La Veda» gallery and in the City Hall of Palma de Mallorca.
1923 was a decisive year for Hubert. He exhibited at the «Ateneo de Madrid» and at the «Galerías Layetanas» in Barcelona, both with overwhelming success in sales and reviews that would establish him as an artist. From this moment on, his exhibitions would continue regularly, both in Spain and abroad: Buenos Aires, Egypt, Brazil, London, Morocco, Rome, Paris, Berlin, Vienna…
The theme of E. Hubert’s work focuses mainly on the Mallorcan landscape, portraits, local folklore, and genre scenes.
In terms of technique, although he frequently worked with oil painting (mainly nudes and the human figure), it was in “watercolour” that he achieved his greatest level of perfection. The beauty and sensitivity of his watercolours portray Mallorca and its people in all their splendour, filtered by a warm Mediterranean light. Beautiful and peaceful sensations, of serenity, peace, and calm, captivate an eager viewer who succumbs to the seduction of the profound and absorbing stillness of his seascapes and landscapes.
In his portraits, he captures the essence of each of his subjects with exceptional skill. He painted more than two thousand portraits: children, young people, intellectuals, aristocrats, businessmen, and above all, anonymous people. During a period in Madrid, he was nicknamed «the painter of the court» because of the enormous number of portraits he painted there.
In his watercolours, he shows a refined and highly meticulous technique. His works are warm and luminous, using a remarkable blend of colours in perfect harmony, immersing himself in an idyllic universe of shapes and colours. The landscapes, seascapes, and characters are filtered through his optical lens and masterfully and delicately captured with his brush. Perfection and harmony are common denominators of his extensive and rich body of work.
Possibly the most significant and recognized work, whose legacy still remains today, was his collaboration from 1929 with the Fomento de Turismo de Mallorca. In 1930, this illustrious institution distributed thousands of posters, brochures, and postcard series in various languages, reproducing a large series of Erwin Hubert’s watercolours throughout Spain and abroad.
Officially, this marked the first large-scale advertising campaign for the beginning of Mallorca’s tourism industry, and Hubert instantly became the main and only illustrator of the “Island of Calm,” as it had been named decades earlier by another great artist, Santiago Rusiñol.
From then on, E. Hubert became the reference image for Mallorca. His illustrations (seascapes, landscapes, and genre scenes) would be a constant feature on book covers, travel guides, posters, and general advertising.
Mallorca owes much to the artists who have passed through it, and especially to Erwin Hubert. Initially alongside Archduke Ludwig Salvator and later, thanks to his collaboration with the Fomento de Turismo de Mallorca, he became, by his own merit, an exquisite ambassador of our little paradise. And like all great artists, he did so with composure and restraint, with sobriety and consistency, and above all, with unconditional love for the island that saw him grow and triumph, and in a tragic accident, perish.
Damián Verger Garau
Judicial Expert in Art and Antiques
and Art Critic.
