The couple Käthe Langhammer (1906–1996) and Walter Langhammer (1905–1977) belonged to socialist groups and art circles in Vienna in the late 1920s and 1930s. Käthe’s Jewish origins and their political commitment forced them to leave Austria for Bombay in 1938. Due to contacts with influential and wealthy Parsi circles, Walter Langhammer got a job in the art department of the largest English newspaper in India, The Times of India. He later became its art director and responsible for The Times of India Annual. By winning the Gold Medal of the Bombay Art Society, the highest honour, he made an impressive entry in the Bombay art world in 1939. Walter Langhammer developed his own style; bold colourful strokes of Post-Impressionism / Fauvism, which depicted panoramic landscapes in pure, bright colours, as well as introverted portraits that searched for the personality in depth. His work was characterized by refined drawing skills and a fondness for vivid, brilliant colours. However, his main source of income from the paintings were commissioned portraits of Bombay’s high society and elite Western ex-pats; mainly of their young children. His penchant for caricatures led him to draw political cartoons for The Times of India during the war. Because of his general success, he started his annual one-man shows in the Convocation Hall in 1942. After he won “The Governor of Bombay Prize” (for the best work in oil colours) for the second time in 1943 with his impressive portrait of Rudolf von Leyden The Critic (today at TIFR collection), he stopped competing in the annual exhibitions of the Bombay Art Society but became a very active member in various committees of the society until he left India in 1957.

Inside and outside this platform, the Langhammers pursued their vision of modern art in India and their belief in the young experimental artists trying to find new forms of expression in a new country. Their enthusiasm and belief infected others like Kekoo Gandhy and other like-minded people. Walter and Käthe Langhammer, Rudolf and Albrecht von Leyden, Emanuel Schlesinger, Homi Bhabha, Mulk Raj Anand, Kekoo Gandhy and other Indians composed an informal group of supporters and admirers of young avant-garde artists, mainly the artists of the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG), as well as with other Indian and Western art aficionados. (Since the Langhammers and Rudi von Leyden were socialist, they may have focused on low-income artists like K.H. Ara or M.F. Husain and neglected artists from wealthy families like Jehangir Sabavala or Akbar Padamse.)
Their network resembled the cosmopolitan atmosphere of post-independence Bombay. At the same time, many elements of public art-promotional infrastructure in India were lacking; such as production rooms, critical reflection and discussion, critical education, showcasing and financial remuneration. The Salon of the Bombay Art Society, founded in 1940, was a small exception and, in addition to experimental, modern exhibitions, also allowed informal meetings, official discussions and talks on these topics and the importance of art in a new, free, decolonized country.
On the other hand, the “patrons” of the informal network surrounding these young artists were in positions and had the means to intervene in art presentation, art advertising, art criticism and art sales on behalf of their protégés. While Langhammer was some sort of artistic role model for some of them in the beginning, for example for S.H. Raza, K.H. Ara, and Sadanand Bakre, he was an art teacher for many. This, in later years, he expanded to the general public in radio shows, talks, and film screenings.
“Every Sunday, it was open house at his studio on Nepean Sea Road” (Gandhy 2003), recalled Kekoo Gandhy. The Langhammers ran a salon at their home at Malabar Hill. Here, young artists met, dinner-parties were held, people from different classes, castes, religions and professions mingled, high-society encountered poor artists, art was discussed and analysed and, paintings were displayed and sold.
On weekdays, Langhammer allowed young artists like Raza to use the studio space for painting; on the weekends it was an open studio in which the works of artists were discussed. Some of these works later appeared in The Times of India publications or, due to corporate networks, in advertisements for companies with a liking for modern art, such as Air India. Some of these companies began acquiring paintings and building up a collection. With the financial support from the steel magnate J.R.D. Tata, Walter Langhammer initiated an artist-in-residence programme in Jamshedpur. His social standing helped promote an open gallery in the form of the Jehangir Art Gallery.
Käthe Langhammer, who was also called Kathy, Cathy and Kathe by her friends, was the “emotional glue” between them, the caretaker during meetings and the socialite; besides her unacknowledged role as a photographer, an art-critic, an art educator and a manager for modern art exhibitions in the Bombay Art Society Salon together with Kekoo Gandhy. Well into old age however, she was the most political and radical left-wing war refugee in Bombay. She had the highest progressive political socialisation of all of them growing up in one of the leading households in 'Red Vienna' and running an underground art salon with her father and her husband in the era of Austrofascism. This political momentum, and their belief in art as a means for political upheaval, united the Langhammers and the communist student leader Rudi von Leyden ideologically with the young artists of the PAG. However, this conviction was no hindrance to search for financial support from Bombay’s financial elite. Being privileged due to their “white race”, prestigious employment, high social status and the appreciation they received in the art circles, they were able to promote and patronize the young and experimenting penniless artists.
Kekoo Gandhy, Langhammer’s greatest admirer, advocate and storyteller, once described Walter Langhammer as a “benevolent dictator”, “a man who got his things” (Kekoo in conversation). Walter Langhammer appears to have been a charming, enthusiastic and strong-willed personality at both business and private gatherings. “Walter has the warmth and charm of his native Vienna, and with his wife and talented help-mate, Kathe he created wherever he went an atmosphere best described by the German word gemutlich, a sense of cosiness, ease and congeniality” (Ariel 1957, 8); a colleague of The Times of India, saying goodbye to the Langhammers after 19 years in Bombay. On a personal level, Walter and Käthe could look back on Walter’s brilliant career as Art Director of The Times of India, using his skills as a commercial and advertising artist and achieving great success as a well-paid painter who won several major awards in Bombay’s art society. As a result, they became part of Bombay’s elite and high-level business and arts networks. What was historically important however, was that in the early days of India’s independence, they contributed to a cosmopolitan milieu in Bombay. This allowed new art movements to grow and prosper; especially the Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) with its hybrid methods, skills and motives and new approaches as a symbol for the new India.
Socialized in ‘Red Vienna’, they advocated art as a political instrument and as a means of emancipated self-expression as early as the late 1920s.