Irene Hölzer-Weinek (geb. Weinek)

Irene Weinek (also Weineck) was born in Prague as the legitimate daughter of the astronomer Ladislaus Weinek and his wife Hermine, née Wahle. After completing her schooling, she began her artistic training as a private pupil of Vojtěch Hynais and then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. She also attended the School of Arts and Crafts there. She later completed her studies under the German painter Lothar von Kunowski in Berlin.

In 1912, she married the bank clerk and major Felix Hölzer and moved to Vienna. She became a committee member of the Vereinigung bildender Künstlerinnen Österreichs and a member of the Zentralverband bildender Künstler, the Österreichische Kunstgesellschaft, the Freie Vereinigung and the Badener Kunstverein. From 1917, she mounted a series of exhibitions, mainly in Vienna.

In 1918, she witnessed the defeat of Austria-Hungary, the collapse of the dual monarchy and the expulsion of the Habsburgs. At the beginning of the 1920s, she spent a few years in the Chinese city of Harbin before returning to Vienna.

Irene Hölzer-Weinek paints in a colorful, expressive style. She is a recognized portrait painter who particularly paints portraits of Austrian personalities of the interwar period. In the 1930s, she painted portraits of prominent Catholic-conservative personalities such as Theodor Cardinal Innitzer, Federal Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss or Federal Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg and many others, but also other personalities such as Sigmund Freud.

On March 12, 1938, she had to witness the invasion of the German Wehrmacht and the end of freedom and democracy. With the occupation of her home country, she was banned from working by the Reich Chamber of Culture. After that, she was probably not professionally active.

In Vienna, Irene Hölzer-Weinek experienced the liberation of Austria and the re-establishment of the Republic in April and May 1945. She joined the newly founded Austrian People's Party (ÖVP) and the ÖVP-Kameradschaft der politisch Verfolgten und Bekenner für Österreich.

Irene Hölzer-Weinek died in Vienna at the age of 77 and was laid to rest at the cemetery in Vienna-Ober St. Veit.