Gustav Klimt Egon S 00 Mess
Gustav Klimt Egon S 00 Mess
Gustav Klimt Egon S 00 Mess
http://www.archive.org/details/gustavklimtegonsOOmess
GLSTAV RLIMT
mi
EGIN SC II1ELE
TRUSTEES
DANA DRAPER
PETER O. LAWSON-.TOHNSTON
A. CHAUNCEY NEWLIN
MRS. HENRY OBRE
DANIEL CATTON RICH
MICHAEL P.WETTACH
MEDLEY G. B. WHELPLEY
CARL ZIGROSSER
1 \IITi; llilHT THE i:\illltlTISI\
and only a few refusals of importance have been sustained. With the massive
help of private and public collections in Austria, the United States and in other
countries, the Schiele retrospective is made up of major works from all periods.
Klimt too is shown through kev works but not in comparable fullness. This
limitation is, in part, enforced by external conditions and partly arrived at through
deliberate decision. Some owners of important works felt obliged to decline our
requests for Klimt's paintings for fear that the frail and vulnerable canvases of
the Art Nouveau master would suffer through a transatlantic shipment. It was
by choice, however, that Klimt is here presented substantially only through works
dated after 1900 and that no effort was made to gather his earlier work. Revealing
as such inclusions would have been, a selection so conceived would have favored
an historic rather than an esthetic point of view. This would have been contrary
to our intentions.
art that might have included the still shadowy figure of Richard Gerstl. and
above all, Oscar Kokoschka, the third and most famous member of the Austrian
triad. This concept was abandoned, however, because Kokoschka might well
become the subject of a full retrospective one-man exhibition at a future date.
It is therefore the distinct but related art of Gustav Klimt and of Egon Schiele the
former seen primarily through his late work, the latter retrospectively, and both
through their drawings as well as their paintings that is presented here to the
This exhibition and tiie preparation for the accompanying catalogue have been in the
making for the past four rears. The many inherent difficulties could be overcome
only because the initiatory effort of the Guggenheim Museum received the full and
generous cooperation of government and museum officials, scholars, collectors, and
dealers in Austria, the United States, and in a number of other countries.
Central to this effort was the unstinting help given by Professor Dr. Fritz Novotny,
Director of the Osterreichische Galerie in I ienna, who was first to commit a number
of important works from his Museum's permanent collection and who persuaded some
of the most important Austrian Klimt and Schiele collectors to support the Guggenheim
Museum's exhibition through loans of great importance. Through its staff, the Oster-
reichische Galerie. with the extensive aid of Dr. Klaus Demus, also acted as an Austrian
gathering point arid arranged for the punctual arrival of previously selected ivorks.
As the following lenders' list indicates, other Austrian museums, through their directors
and staffs, seconded the support initially received through generous loan arrangements
and through a variety of helpful acts. The same may be said of galleries and individual
lenders in Vienna and in other parts of the Austrian Republic. Among these, the
participation of the Klimt oivner Mrs. Marietta Preleuthner, the Schiele specialist
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, and of Mr. and Mrs. I iktor Fogarassy, who have assembled
the most extensive private collection of the two Austrian masters must be specially
noted, if only because their combined participation supplementing museum loans
assured a desirably broad basis for the exhibition, hi addition to those here mentioned
or subsequently listed, the anonymous but decisive aid of the Austrian Ministry of
Education is herewith most gratefully acknowledged.
In this country, interest in Klimt and Schiele has been consistently furthered through
the pioneering efforts of the Galerie St. Etienne in Neiv York. Its director, Dr. Otto
Kallir, has not only contributed works by both artists from his own collection and
that of the Galerie. but also has made available to the Guggenheim Museum records
without which some ivorks of primary importance could not have been located or
obtained.
Outside of Austria and the United States, sizeable loan contributions have been obtained
from the Narodni Galerie in Prague and through Marlborough Fine Art Ltd. in London
who have graciously assisted us in the preparation of some color plates.
A thorough documentation could not have been secured for this catalogue without the
specialized knowledge of Klimt and Schiele scholars. Our thanks, in this respect, must
first go to Dr. Johannes Dobai, Zurich, who contributed relevant portions from the
documentary section of his as ret unpublished Gustav Klimt. An analogous service
for the Schiele documentation has been performed by Dr. Otto Kallir who, under the
name of Otto Nirenstein, had published in 1930 the first catalogue raisonnee of Schiele's
paintings from ivhose pages we quoted at will. Material due to be published in an
updated and English version was also placed at our disposal by the author. The lenders
themselves, and notably Professor Dr. Fritz Novotny have cooperated by furnishing
valuable information relating to ivorks in their possession. Finally, the documentation
of the catalogue was enriched by Miss Sandra Comini who engaged in a recent and
new clues on Schiele. Miss Comini allowed me to read her unpublished
fruitful search for
thesis Egon Schiele, The Artist's Vision of Himself and to incorporate in various
parts of this catalogue such findings as seemed pertinent to our purposes. Also,
catalogue essays have been by Dr. Johannes Dobai, Miss Sandra Comini
written
ami Professor James Demetrion, Curator of the Pasadena Art Museum.
T.
Dr. Dobai's essay on Klimt is rendered here in the carefully considered translation
of Dr. Avram Kampf and Miss Winifred Mason.
I lastly wish to acknowledge the most diligent efforts of this Museum's staff and
particularly the extensive editorial and research ivork contributed toward the exhibition
and the catalogue by Dr. Louise Averill Svendsen, Associate Curator, and by Miss
Linda Konheim.
T. M. M.
u:\iiiiss in tin: i:\uimiu\
GUSTAV KLIMT, more than one hundred years after his birth, is little known outside
his native Austria, and therefore one hesitates to speak of rediscovery where discovery
in a general sense has never taken place. His work, however, seemingly old-fashioned
a generation ago, has moved toward the center of modern perception. This has
happened not only because of the vital content of Klimt "s drawing and painting,
but also because of a readjustment of our critical sensibilities in recent years. Klimt
stood outside of our held of vision apparently because we failed to look, or at least,
because we were incapable of seeing while our attention was focused in other directions.
During the first half of our century, when Klimt went largely unnoticed, we were
situated within a range of glaring lights that delighted and totally absorbed our
vision. Thus it is not surprising that our averted faces could not be mirrored in the
faintly shimmering surfaces of Klimt's subtle art.
EGON SCHIELE, first Klimt"s pupil and disciple, then contender for Klimt's primacy
among Austrian artists, was renounced for altogether different reasons. Although,
during the ten brief years of his creative maturity from 1908 to 1918 he did not
follow a mainstream which at that toward non-objective
time pointed clearly
abstraction, Schiele partook of the visual insights that marked this most radical
of modern decades and was nourished by the great precursors of modern art. His
draftsmanship and psychological actireness recall a similar combination of qualities
in Toulouse-Lautrec. Schiele shares with Van Gogh a great emotional fervor that
is lodged in forms relatable to common scheme indicates the
vision. His color
impact made upon him by Matisse and the Fauves" and lastly, the prominent
Swiss master Ferdinand Hodler exerted a clearly traceable influence upon the
young Austrian. Consequently it is not, as with Klimt, a lack of ready identification
with modernism that caused Schiele's art to remain distant. Rather, it would seem, is
it the very intensity of his painting and drawing, his brutal evocations of realities too
unwelcome to be admitted, that made us turn away in an effort to avoid or at least
postpone a painful encounter. If Schiele remains "difficult'" and "disagreeable" to
this day, this is because he relentlessly projects an aspect of reality through means
that increase rather than absorb the shock of confrontation. In this respect, he goes
further than his German contemporaries, the Expressionists, and can be likened
only to a later generation of artists painters Jean Dubuffet and Francis
like
Bacon who by their refusal to mitigate the anguished content of their art divest their
forms of engaging attributes.
KTIMT and SCHIELE were not, nor are they today, an evenly matched pair.
Nevertheless, a complementary relationship in their personalities and in
there
is
their respectivework that makes the contribution of each more meaningful when
both are seen and considered together.
II
The differences in the two personalities and in their artistic legacies are conspicuous:
almost thirty years Schiele's senior, Klimt leaves a biography so hare of external
events that an attempt to record it leads to an enumeration of trivia. Records about
his life are few and uninformative. Even the public quarrels which he could not
avoid as the undisputed spokesman and ranking painter of the Viennese avant-garde,
do not bring him closer in human terms. Nothing pierces the deliberate veil of
anonymity that protected his private life from the threatened incursions of the
outside world. 1
He arranged his life to stand apart from his art and it thus fails
story is an almost uninterrupted secpience of tragic events that cast the artist into
the roles of hero and martyr. Schiele's debut as a child prodigy was accompanied
by early conflicts at home and at school. A desperate emotional intensity during
adolescence and early youth, social isolation and erotic excesses, resulted in a showdown
with philistine provincialism, which brought about charges of immorality and a twenty-
four day long prison sentence. Feverish work, uninterrupted by the complexities of friend-
and war, readied the artist for a dearly bought critical
ships, love affairs, marriage
and commercial success w ith its implied promise of eventual consolidation. At this
r
moment the death of his young wife announced his own premature end, following
within days.
The painting and drawing of these two artists reflect both their respective disengage-
ment from and involvement with the events of their lives. Where Klimt is ornamentally
decorous, Schiele is often indecorously expressive. Klimt's meticulously structured
mosaic compositions are opposite in concept and execution from Schiele's sure and
daring linear scheme, as are Klimt's subtly balanced tonal effects when seen in
juxtaposition with Schiele's fauve and eventually expressionist use of color. Klimt
strives through formal means to attain an order that, not unlike Mondrian's, reduces
spontaneous and individual components to a collective validity. Schiele, in contrast
more like Klee, transcribes highly personal insights which then assume the power of
evoking common
experiences. Above all, Klimt, despite his current relevance to
modern must be seen as a late exponent of an historic style, whereas Schiele
art,
raises to the most intense pitch the newly acquired awarenesses of 20th century man.
Together, Klimt and Schiele signify an end and a beginning, and at one poignant
moment their adjoining forms point simultaneously backward and forward to comprise
past and future in a fleeting present.
However, not everything between Klimt and Schiele is contrast. Similarities in their
livesand backgrounds are also demonstrable, as are analogies in their respective
work: Klimt's mother and Schiele's father died insane, and during their lifetimes
both artists reacted with understandable sensitivity to their fearsome and similar
12
family histories. Preoccupation with erotic subject matter, common to both, is not
itself surprising at a time and in the very city where Sigmund Freud's discoveries
originated. But Klimt and Schiele felt compelled to visualize for themselves, and
inevitably for others, what had until then been relegated to a most private domain.
Inevitably, therefore, clashes between a truly Freudian irrepressibility and a
conventional sense of decorum had to arise. Given the charged atmosphere in which
Klimt and Schiele imparted forbidden knowledge through the most explicit of art
forms the visual media of painting and drawing the personal consequences could
not but be varying degrees of disgrace, humiliation and withdrawal. Thus, although
Klimt and Schiele spring from different generations, there is about them both the
faint but pervasive fragrance of fin-de-siecle that lends a sickly and tortured quality
to their clairvoyant art.
The relationship between Klimt and Schiele is in its factual aspects a matter of record
but in its broader implications a source for fascinating if necessarily inconclusive
speculation: we know that Schiele when still a student at the Vienna Academy
sought Klimt's advice at a time when the older artist enjoyed a position of great
eminence among venturesome working artists. Klimt commended the youth and
proceeded to help him, then and later, in various ways. There cannot be any doubt
that this counted heavily in Schiele's early efforts to assert himself and that it helped
him to come into his own. The criticism which Schiele sought and obtained from
Klimt after their first encounter in 1907 reflected clearly and beneficially in his
is
early work. Equally visible is Schiele's gradual detachment from Klimt's example and
his development of a style in which Klimt has no longer a perceptible part after 1910.
Less verifiable, although cpiite plausible, are often repeated speculations about a
spiritual father-son relationship between Klimt and Schiele as well as the notion
that Schiele became Klimt's heir and successor, receiving the mantle of the older
artist during the few months that were given to Schiele after Klimt's death. Recently
Schiele's filial reverence toward Klimt has been doubted and instead a struggle has
been proposed in which an aggressive and self-confident Schiele sought to supplant
his precursor. 2 This interpretation has been offered on the basis of an analysis of
Schiele's double portraits depicting both artists. It appears likely that the true
relationship between Klimt and Schiele must have run the gamut of all sentiments
that inevitably reflect affinities and tensions between an older and a younger generation
of artists.
2. Alessandra Comini. Egon Schiele: The Artist's Vision of Himself, unpublished Master's thesis,
University of California, 1964.
13
1862 Born on the night of July 13th, son of the goldsmith and engraver Ernst Kliml
(1832
1894) and his wife Anna Finster, in Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna.
Second of seven children.
1876 Accepted as special student with scholarship al the Kunstgewerbeschule des
Osterreichischen Museums.
Two years of preparatory classes with Rieser, Minningerode and Krachowina:
afterwards studied with Ferdinand Laufberger.
1879 Participated in decorative work of Hans Makart, leading Viennese historical painter.
1881 Death of Laufberger. Continued studies under Berger.
1882 Executed works for Karlsbad and Reichenberg with his vounger brother Ernst
Klimt and Franz Matsch.
Association with the theater architects Fellner and Helmer.
1883 Moved into own studio with Matsch and his brother Ernst (Sandwirthgasse 8,
Vienna). Many decorative works and commissions.
1886 Important work by the three artists in Karlsbad.
Began work on the ceiling paintings for the Wiener Burgtheater (Semper and
Hasenauer).
1888 Completion of ceiling paintings. Awarded Kaiserpreis.
1891 Spandrels and panels between columns on stairway of Kunsthistorisches Museum
in Vienna.
Beginning of turn toward modern movement: stronger two-dimensionality, primitive
aspects enter his work.
1892 Death of his vounger brother Ernst.
1893 Joined W iener Kunstlerhausgesellschaft.
1894 Death of his father.
Left Matsch, with whom he had received the commission for allegorical paintings
of the faculties of Philosophy, Medicine and Law for the ceiling of the assembly hall
of University of Vienna.
Moved studio to Josefstrasse, Vienna.
Otto Wagner wrote Moderne Architectur in this year.
1895 Strong two-dimensionalitv and mood paintings .
1898 In March, first exhibition of the Secession in rooms of the Wiener Gartenbaugesellschaft
in the Parkring.
Klimt's poster Theseus objected to on moral grounds and changed.
Beginning of Secession's publication. T ~er Sacrum, and of building for group designed
by Josef Maria Olbrich.
Klimt painting for Palais Dumba, also symbolic works like ['alias ithena.
Summers from now on spent mostly at Attersee.
1900 First faculty painting. Philosophy, caused scandal at the Ttli spring exhibition
of the Secession.
Faculty at the University protested installation of the paintings. Wickhoff defended
klimt in a lecture.
In the autumn the work received the Medaille d'llonneur at the Paris \5 orld
Exhibition.
1901 Even greater scandal caused by the second faculty picture. Medicine, in the
Secession's 10th spring exhibition.
On March 19. the sixth edition of J'er Sacrum containing sketches for the painting
was confiscated.
On March 21. confiscation rescinded; parliamentary investigation of Klimt begun
on same day.
On March 23 Klimt interviewed for the Wiener Morgenzeitung. Hermann Bahr
published Rede iiher Klimt.
Participated in international art exhibition in Dresden. Beginning of great popularity
in Germany.
At end of year, Klimt nominated for professorship at Viennese Academy.
Klimt and his friends suggest exhibition of Max Klinger's statue of Beethoven
with symbolical friezes.
Painted his friend Emilie Floge. designed dresses for her fashion studio.
1903 Trip to Ravenna; stronger mosaic quality in his pointillist paintings.
Klimt group in the Secession organized a large Hodler exhibition;
Hodler's international reputation increased greatly afterwards.
Bahr published Gegen Klimt in his defense.
November-December, large exhibition of Klimt's works in the Secession (18th
exhibition).
In the course of the vear tension began within the Secession; foundation of the
Wiener Werkstdtte. Last year of publication of Ver Sacrum.
1904 Increased tension within the Secession. Klimt left the Secession with his group,
called the Stilisten
(Auchtentaller. Bernatzik, Biihm, Holzel. Hoffmann. .lager. Klimt. Kurzweil. List.
Luksch. Metzner, Moll. Orlik, Roller, Wagner).
19
Hoffmann's commission for the Stoclet Palace in Brussels: Klimt and the Wiener
Werkstdtte designed frieze in the dining hall.
1905 Klimt bought back the faculty paintings after writing a letter of protest to the
Ministry of Education.
Final break with official art. Government prevented his appointment to professorship.
Trip to Berlin, where he received and declined Villa Romana prize.
Miethke Gallery exhibition of Van Gogh.
1906 Trip to Brussels and London in connection with the Stoclet frieze:
admiration for Velasquez; general lightening of palette.
Hevesi published 8 Jahre Secession with many articles about Klimt. Changes in the
faculty panels.
1907 Exhibition of the final version of the faculty panels in the Miethke Gallery in Vienna
and the Keller and Reiner Gallery in Berlin.
Illustrations for the Hetdrengesprdche.
Met and encouraged the young Egon Schiele.
1908 Wiener Kunstschau 1908, an exhibition given by the Klimt group in a temporary
building designed by Josef Hoffmann.
Opening address by Klimt; showed 16 new paintings.
The Osterreichische Staatsgalerie bought Kiss; Death and Life awarded gold medal
in Rome.
Miethke Gallery announced publication of Das Werk Guslar Klimts.
1909 Wiener Kunstschau 1909 showed Klimt's Old Woman and works by Schiele and
Kokoschka (who staged his play Morder Hoffnung der Frauen). Munch. Corinth.
Toorop. Bonnard, Vuillard, Matisse, Gauguin and ^ an Gogh.
Began work on the Stoclet frieze. Trip to Paris in October.
1910 Break with the "golden style". Included in the 9th international exhibition at Venice.
Drew his mentally disturbed mother several times.
1911 Installation of the Stoclet frieze in Brussels.
To Rome where he exhibited several works with the Austrian division of the
International Art Exhibition.
The repainted Death and Life received a gold medal. In summer paintings of the
castle in Kaminer.
1912 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (II) and Miida Primavesi.
Beginning of a broader painterly style.
Important by Weixlgartner in the Die Graphischen Kiinste.
article
1913 The Virgin. Summer in Gardasee (Malcesine and Casone).
1916 Spring, trip to Moravia. Portrait of Friedericke Maria Beer.
1917 Nominated for honorary professorship at the Vienna Academy and Munich
Academy.
1918 After return from trip to Rumania, stroke of apoplexy on January 10.
Died February 6.
20
The last few rears have witnessed an increasing number of exhibitions dedicated to
Art Nouveau, the art of our grandfather's era. In recent publications, scholars have noted the
similarity of some aspects of Art Nouveau to conteniporarv art: thev have traced the source
of several elements of our own artistic tendencies to Art Nouveau. Because we still live in the era
of the great transformations which engendered Art Nouveau, we see primarily the complexity of
this phenomenon. Expressions like proto-Art Nouveau and post-Art Nouveau remind us of the
Nouveau had entirely different spiritual origins. On the other hand, there is a formalistic conception
which sees in Art Nouveau a general style concept encompassing Toulouse-Lautrec. Hodler. Munch.
Seurat, Van Gogh, and also Stuck. ^ hen we consider the suggestion that Art Nouveau originated
with Blake, we are faced with the whole problem of the relation of Art Nouveau to Symbolism,
Mannerism and Surrealism. From here it is all too easy to lose the Art Nouveau movement in
One consequence of the reevaruation of Art Nouveau has been the rediscovery of Klimt.
As the president of the Viennese Secession, an important modern artists' league at the turn of the
century, this painter was once an outstanding figure on the international stage of Art Nouveau.
Considering the quality of his work also, the rediscovery of Klimt was long overdue: it happened
because his painting points straight to the problems of Art Nouveau. His oeuvre offers a complete
example of the art of a "typical" Art Nouveau painter, especially the late, geometricizing phase
of the style, called High Art Nouveau. which originated partially in Vienna under Klimt's influence.
21
Klimt's mature work exemplifies the characteristic features of this phase, the symbolical
basis of the pictorial representation, together with the tendency to abstract this symbolic statement
into stylized, geometrical, two-dimensional forms. Klimt's case seems to strengthen the older
point of view that Art Nouveau's real territory lay in the area of applied art. He did not simply
develop a planar art in the radical sense of Maurice Denis' theories; rather, more than any other
of his contemporaries, Klimt treated the painting as a material object as well as a vehicle of
representation and carrier of symbolic meaning. For this reason, he employed techniques which
are in the simplest sense those of applied art. Gold and silver color and ornamentation are not
illusionisticallv rendered on the canvas, but are applied directly to it. The painting follows both
the laws of applied arts, i.e., material-structural laws, and general form principles, like the variation
elements is more developed in Klimt's work than in Toorop, who had initially influenced him
in this direction.
One of Klimt's most important designs, a frieze in the dining hall of the Palais Stoclet
in Brussels, was executed by the Wiener Werkstatte in various materials (marble, metal, enamel
and semi-precious stones) before the advent of collage painting per se. While other artists of his
generation created similar designs for the applied arts, Klimt's frieze is unique in that it reveals
both a functioning ideologv and a deeper artistic intuition, which we sense in the paintings also.
It is perhaps no accident that the frieze (one is tempted to call it an antipicture) was described
by the young van Doesburg as among other things, a pure rectangular two-dimensional composition.
Others noted that Klimt had abandoned illusionism and scientific perspective, and that his
paintings "were composed with incredible audacity around 1900 of two kinds of elements: the
representational and the abstract." (Hildebrand) Only in the Cubist collages did something similar
occur. Already Klimt proceeded (in a precubist style, of course) as if he were assembling a
puzzle of different materials and structures. The artist handles freely all the elements of his picture
space; parts of the picture continue to be illusionistic (sometimes strikingly naturalistic), parts are
flattened, deformed or fragmented.
Because of these innovations, the images in Klimt's paintings are ambivalent. The
multiplicity and instability of effect he seeks is concealed by the exaggerated precision of his forms.
Every painting since the Renaissance has a more or less coherent "key" for the transposition of
visual perception to the canvas. The key may vary within the picture (for example, by aerial
perspective), but the painting remains self-contained and continuous; this is true even of Matisse's
art. Klimt, however, broke with the continuity of spatial representation, circumvented the whole
school of Impressionism, and treated ornamental motives both for their own sake and as elements
equal to the fragments of representation in his paintings. Thus, his planes of ornament are
fundamentals different from the tapestry-like surfaces we find in some Van Goghs and Vuillards.
They do not present really existing ornament (although in several cases Klimt played with this
possibility), but they are derived from autonomous symbols, repeated or added together. Klimt
exploited metallic color as an anti-illusionistic element; applied with the brush or as foil, it sparkles
or absorbs light depending on the spectator's point of view. Ornament not only forms a second
picture plane: it is autonomous from I lie very beginning. It conjures up an esoteric realm, an
aspect of Klimt's art to which we shall return. Precursors of Klimt's method of pictorial construction
are found preeminentlv in the Pre-Raphaelites and in Guslave Moreau. WIhii the Nazarenes
ornamented the borders of their paintings with small symbolical representations, they were striving
for something remotely similar with more limited means. Klimt's solution naturally depends on the
immediately preceding steps of Art Nouveau; these are too numerous to mention here. The general
precondition of this development is the transformation of the Romantic into the Aesthetic move-
ment in the age of Materialism. "Que la poesie se rattache aux arts . . . de la cuisine et du
cosmetique . . . par Faccouplement de tel substantif avec tel adjectif, analogue ou contraire."
(Baudelaire)
Klimt's art is not simply refined; it is built upon a precarious balance of all possible
contrasts. The painter emphasizes certain elements; for instance, he exaggerates the naturalism
of the heads, which he sets in the canvas like precious stones in goldwork. His art, which at first
strikes us as "intellectual" also has its dark "Slavic" side, as this term was understood in Vienna
at that time ; as a matter of fact, Klimt was of partly Slavic ancestry. The all-over effortless precision
of the composition and the exaggerated clarity of the forms is, to a certain extent, deceptive.
If we examine his esoteric ornament more closely, we find in it an ambivalence of symbolic meaning
which is independent from its historical source whether this is Egyptian, Mvcenean, Celtic,
a typically Art Nouveau whiplash line, or a motif borrowed from Mackintosh. This ambivalence
refers both to its role in the painting and to the microstructure itself. For example, a pattern
of wavy lilies suggests the Egyptian staring eve motif, but a remarkable change has taken place,
a neutralization of a motif which formerly had magical connotations. In other cases, a window
centered behind a head creates a halo effect, and here also, the motif is emptied of its mythical
connotations remarkable indeed for a symbolist. Countless sequences of flower motives have
a clearly erotic character: women's breasts are stylized in the same manner. In other words, even
the ornamental elements are ambivalent, and their general meaning, too, is elusive. One of Klimt's
admirers, Ludwig Hevesi, described this quality in the prose style of contemporary neoroniantic
Viennese literature. According to Hevesi, Klimt's ornament is a metaphor of the "never-ending,
infinitely mutating primal matter spinning, whirling, coiling, winding, twisting a fiery whirlwind
which assumes all shapes, flashing lightning and the darting tongues of serpents, clinging tendrils,
Later, after 1910, such form allegories of the W eltrdtsel seen from a pessimistic and
deterministic point of view cease as Klimt's art becomes deeper in content, more personal and
more serious. Now Klimt turned to Far-Eastern motives to heighten the all-over luxuriousness
of his paintings. Sometimes he worked out freer compositions which cannot be grasped semanticallv
at all. In his late, open style, parts of the canvas seem to project a state of spontaneous psychic
energy; unfinished sections clearly* show the emergence of these almost psvcliographie images.
An ideology and a personality coalesce in Klimt's innovations. On the one hand, they
are the consequence of a long development, which cannot be traced here, since it involves the
whole idea complex of "romantic agony." (Praz) For klimt and his friends, these ideas were allied
with an ideology of social reform derived from the English and Van de Veldc. The paradoxical
association of spiritual and materialistic elements was already evident in the art of the Pre-
Raphaelites.
We know little today about the ideas and experiments in Europe which were intimately
familiar to Klimt as the president of the Viennese Secession. Who. for instance, knows anything
about Carl Strathmann? An artist of lesser importance but related by temperament to Klimt.
he handled pictorial motives and ornament in a similar fashion. Lovis Corinth's essay describing
23
the genesis of this artist's Salome may clarify the psychic process behind Klimt's inclination
toward loading his canvas with minute ornament. According to Corinth, this disposition reflects
an inner condition, classically formulated by Balzac in his Chef (foeuvre inconnu. Cezanne, a
different type of artist, also appreciated this story, because it deals with the problem of perfecting
a work of art. Klimt and Strathmann forced perfection on the canvas by most artificial means.
What little we know about Klimt's personality would indicate a further analogy with
Corinth's description of Strathmann. The first president of the Secession, this outwardly pugnacious
artist was an embittered champion of the collective Gesamtkunstwerk against some of his colleagues
in the Secession (he left it in 1904 with some friends); a figure of robust health and physical strength,
Klimt was actually a shy and complex person, hardly less so than Munch.
A "cerebral erotic" (Blei), Klimt suffered at times from depression, intensified by his
reading "a dangerous literature about heredity and guilt" (Tietze) ; Klimt's mother was
mentallv ill. His appearance was so little like a decadent artist (and his emaciated figures)
that he disappointed many people. His manner of "playing Caliban" at times led Lichtwark.
usually a perceptive observer, to a rather superficial description: "He is squat, somewhat
heavy, athletic, would have liked to wrestle with Hodler, has the cheerful rough ways
of a country bov, the tanned skin of a sailor, protruding cheekbones and lively small eyes. He
wears his hair brushed back from his temples, perhaps to make his face appear longer. This is
the only thing which might lead one to suspect that this man is an artist. He speaks in a loud
voice and in heavy dialect. He likes to tease and joke." We know also that Klimt had photographs
taken of himself several times in a remarkable painter's robe of his own design, which made him
look like a high priest of painting. He appears in this garb on a boat in the Attersee, where he was
one of the first people in Austria to own a motorboat. Klimt spent twenty summers there in the
company of Emilie Floge, whom he never married, as Tietze explains, out of his fear of turning
happiness into routine. Tietze also reports: "To outsiders, he presented a simple and ordinary
appearance; to those who knew him, an existence full of mystery. Klimt's outward life and manners
had much of the Philistine about them; he guarded his inner life jealously. Circumstances placed
Klimt in the spotlight of Viennese artistic life, but he was actually a shy person who dreaded
public appearances." Indeed, the last decade of his life was spent in isolation.
We know of no long letters by Klimt; he once mentioned his aversion to writing. This
gives us additional reason to study the content of his paintings more closely.
The locus of Klimt's thematic material is the erotic, which (we might expect in Freud's
city) branches into its sexual and biological aspects. The predilection toward the erotic can be
noted both in figural compositions and in landscape. From the middle of the 90's male portraits
disappear from Klimt's work. His female portraits are psychological studies of a nervous luxury
(one is reminded of Bronzino and Ingres) strange visions of petrified bloom, icon-like, embedded
in the colorful splendor of a pictorial tapestry. The earlv landscapes often show a swamp or a
glistening water surface; later they become close-ups of vegetation, transformed into a rich and
sensuous surface. Paintings of gardens are frequent. The theme of the profusion of nature viewed
intimately also fascinated Van Gogh, whose art was well known in Vienna: but Klimt's constantly
repeated ornamentalized leaves and flowers stress the unfree and predetermined aspect of the
biological world. We are rather far removed from the demonically sexual vision of nature in
Huysmans (La-bas); however, klimt sometimes paints flowers resembling sexual organs. Even
where such an analogy is not explicit, the flower retains an ambivalent amorphous outline. Klimt
assimilated the principles of Hodler's parallelism, and after 1900 often made use of the pointillist
24
of parallel planes of foliage suggests the experience of isolation and alienation. This "manneristic
distance" is heightened by the luxuriance of Klimt's color. In effect, the panerotic quality of the
figurative pictures, which caused a great deal of protest, including a parliamentary investigation,
was consistently carried through in Klimt's landscapes.
The panerotic symbolism runs through his oeuvre like a constantly reappearing thread.
While his paintings were neglected. Klimt's reputation as a draftsman of the erotic never diminished:
he was one of the greatest draftsmen of his time, surely equal to Beardslev. Even the early academic
virtuoso paintings reveal Klimt's orientation. A fundamental theme in his painting, the biological
self-sufficiency of the female, appears in the early works in the metaphor of the Lesbian. His
experiments in symbolism in the 90's were based on those of the Pre-Raphaelites and Klmopff, Minne
and Stuck. At that time Klimt was a typical painter of the "femme fatale" and shared with his
contemporaries the elaborate hair fetishism common since Rossetti. It is very characteristic,
however, that Klimt evolved his personal view of these themes in a commission, where his break
with tradition was to be fateful for his entire career. Klimt interpreted his three panels for the
University of Vienna on the theme of the faculties of philosophy, medicine, and law through a
kind of pessimistic determinism which recognized the biological as the only true element of life,
and thus the sciences as useless gloss to life's infinite meaningless course. Ignoramibus could be
said to be the message of these pictures, which were violently discussed and which Klimt eventually
bought back from the Ministry of Culture. Wickhoff noted the emergence of a new concept of
science and ugliness in the panels.
motives, like a distorted pregnant woman (a theme already treated by Ensor, which Klimt later
developed independently) and ornamental motives emerge at random. The panels evoke Freud's
region of the subconscious, especially the last of the three, the Law panel of 1907.
In this painting, the sexual also determines ethical fate (as in Klimt's contemporary
Beethoven frieze, where, however, art is personified as the liberator). Demonic furies, "partially
tuberculous and knock-kneed, partially overripe voluptuous hetaerae," to use the words of a hostile
critic, are looking past a condemned man standing by a wall (a favorite motif of Strindberg and
Kafka). Here and in the mature paintings as well, one can discern how the ornament strengthens
the artist's conception. The furies' hair echoes the smokelike forms which, moving through the
picture, symbolize fate. Hevesi described the ornamentalized octopus-like creature which symbolizes
guilt as "a new American execution machine, system of a thousand suction cups which function
like blood-letting tubes ... a submarine tiger of the latest construction."
The theme of all the paintings remains the "fateful passivity of mankind, brutish, suffering,
these formulae with the great painters of ideas, Hodler and Munch. He too, as if obsessed, returns
again and again to the material of an all comprehensive frieze of life. But he differs from Munch
and Hodler in his tendency toward stronger or emblematic stvlization, his adherence to
naturalistic figures as elements of contrast, and by his horror vacui. Klimt is much less
convincing than Munch when he deals with the theme <>l man as a self-isolated individual.
25
Klimt's late phase brought a new, more open expression of agony. Around 1910 he loosened
his bond to the ornamental, allegedly because of the liberating influence of a visit to Paris. Whatever
the cause, the transformation of Klimt's art was critical and rapid. At this time, he repainted
one of the principal works of his '"golden period," Death and Life, changing the gold background
to blue and replacing precise ornament with looser block-like forms reminiscent of huge cells. The
bright colors of this phase are akin to those of Matisse but Slavic folk art also played a part,
suggesting the noisy salmon red which Klimt often used. Composition became more dynamic,
as in the Virgin of 1913. Here a tangle of ecstatic women's faces and limbs turn in a great spiral:
the insistently repeated smaller spirals of the ornament reinforce the expression of inner ecstasy.
Klimt's artistic testament, the uncompleted Bride of 1917 18, is more than anexpressionistic
painting, as it is usually described. A flamelike formation of landscape fragments and of figures
surrounds a figure whose legs are symmetrically disposed as if she were on a torture bench. One
is reminded more of Henry Miller than of the "femme fatale."
klimt's work in Munich may have aroused the interest of the voung Kandinsky; his
experiments in composition have impressed many, and there are elements in his work which only
our own time can appreciate. On the whole, however, Klimt's work did not lead into a wider stream
of art; he was almost unknown in France, and German Expressionism developed as an antipode
to this kind of painting, which remained for the most part confined to Vienna. A theoretician
of the German Expressionist movement wrote in 1914 of "Klimt's Viennese school . . . which
still has a spark of life left in it." The author was referring to Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. Schiele,
whose works are also featured in this exhibition, was in contact with Klimt, his only true master,
from 1907. He acknowledged his debt to Klimt once in 1909 with a remarkable self-portrait
variant on a nude in the Medicine panel (interestingly, a female figure); later he drew Klimt on
the deathbed, shortly before his own death. Naturally, Schiele's true debt to Klimt is to be found
in his entire oeuvre, not so much in the early canvases, which were directly influenced by Klimt.
as in those produced shortly after the association of the two artists. The interrelationship of the
two has yet to be clarified. It began in any case in 1909, when Schiele exhibited his Dead Mother
and Klimt his Old Woman in the Wiener Kunstschau; Klimt's painting, with its sombre colors,
is the first indication of his renunciation of the "golden style," although it is not certain whether
Klimt was influenced by Schiele's presence. Sometimes the similarity between their works is
surprising, for instance in the landscapes with church steeples of 1913. Klimt painted in Casena,
Schiele in Stein an der Donau, yet the resulting canvases are very similar. Later both tended
to soften the angularity of their forms more and more, and the block or cell-like decorative system
seems to have been a common development. More important, however, are their deeply related
artistic tendencies.
Klimt and Schiele established an autonomous world within Viennese modern painting,
shared only with the young Kokoschka. Their world is strongly colored by death; anxiety, the
basic modern experience, is more limited and sociologically concrete in the works of these artists
than in those of their great contemporary. Munch. In Munch, anxiety breaks forth in a Kirkegaardian
shriek of loneliness. With the Viennese, even considering the more exhibitionistic aspects of Schiele.
this anxiety is the fruit of the dissolution of an overripe culture which was overcome by world
historical events in the very year of Klimt's death and that of his pupil. Anxiety reveals itself
here in an erotic frenzy springing from a feeling of emptiness. The artists express a kind ol nihilism
which had almost nothing to do with the ethical nihilism of the 19th century. Wanting to fill this
emptiness, Klimt filled his bare canvases with his Art Nouveau experiments.
7. STUDY FOR "PORTRAIT OF MADA PRIMAVESI". c. 1912. Pencil, 22x14+/' (56x36.7 cm.).
12. STUDY FOR "PORTRAIT OF FRIEDERICKE MARIA BEER", c. 1916. Pencil, 22|x 14|" (57 x 37.5 cm.).
13. STUDY FOR "PORTRAIT OF FRIEDERICKE MARIA BEER", e. 1916. Pencil, 22fx 14}" (57 x 37.5 cm.).
14. STUDY FOR "PORTRAIT OF FRIEDERICKE MARIA BEER", c. 1916. Pencil, 22-fx 14}" (57 x 37.5 cm.).
15. STUDY FOR "PORTRAIT OF FRIEDERICKE MARIA BEER", c. 1916. Pencil. 22|x 14}" (57x37.5 cm.).
16. RECLINING NUDE, FACING LEFT FROM THE BACK. 1916-18. Pencil, 13}x224/' (34.7x57 cm.).
Collection Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.
17. HEAD OF A GIRL. 1916-18. Ink, chalk, 22xl4+/' (56.6 x 36.9 cm.).
19. HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF YOUNG WOMAN. 1917-18. Pencil, 20| x 13" (51x33 cm.).
21. RECLINING WOMAN WITH FOLDED ARMS. Red pencil, 14^x22" (37x56 cm.).
22. SEATED NUDE FROM THE BACK. Pencil, 224, x 144/' (56.5 x 37 cm.).
26. STUDY FOR PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN. Pencil, 19x 134/ (49.5 x 33.6 cm.).
27. WOMAN'S HEAD, THREE-QUARTER VIEW. Pencil, chalk, 224x14 J" (56.7 x 37.2 cm.).
29. WOMAN STANDING, FACING RIGHT. Pencil, 19|Xl2|" (49.6 x 32.4 cm.).
30. FEMALE MODEL, ARMS RAISED BEFORE HER HEAD. Pencil, 21xl34. (55 x 33.6 cm.).
Collection Dr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Eckhardt, Winnipeg.
32. SEATED NUDE, HEAD RESTING ON HAND. Pencil, 22+xl4|" (57 x 37.5 cm.).
33. STANDING NUDE IN PROFILE TO LEFT. Pencil, 22J-X14;}" (57 x 37.5 em.).
34. STANDING NUDE WITH ARMS PLACED DIAGONALLY ACROSS BODY. Pencil, 22|xl4f" (56.4 x 37 cm.).
36. SEATED WOMAN WITH HEAD TURNED RIGHT. Pencil, 18 x 124/' (46x31 cm.).
12
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PAIITIMS U THE EUIIIHTIIU
33
34
Entries in this catalogue are chronological. References to Exhibitions: Galerie St. Etiemie. New York. 1959.
and exhibitions under each heading are abbreviated,
literature Galerie St. Etienne, New \ork. 1961, no. 2.
and may be found in detail in the documentation section Galerie St. Etienne. New \ork, 1964, no. 12.
MEDICINE. (Oil sketch for painting destroyed in 1945.) 3. ATTERSEE. 1900-1901. (Illustration page 33.)
1897-1898. Oil on canvas. 39+ x 39+" (100 x 100 cm.).
Oil on canvas, 29+ X 21 J" (75x55 cm.). Signed on stretcher.
Not signed or dated. Collection Dr. and Mrs. Otto Kallir. New \ork.
Private Collection. Vienna. Provenance: Galerie Nebehay, A ienna.
Exhibitions: Wiener Secession, A ienna, 1903, no. 18. Neue Galerie, \ ienna.
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna. 1962, no. 3. Galerie St. Stephan, Vienna.
Wien urn 1900, Vienna. 1964. no. 32. Exhibitions: Osterreichische Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert. Bern,
Literature: eisler, M. Gustav Klimt. Vienna, 1920. p. 23. 1937.no. 1.
HATLE, I. Gustav Klimt, Graz, 1955. Galerie St. Etienne, New Vork. 1950, no. 11.
pirchan, E. Gustav Klimt. Vienna. 1956, pi. 55. Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1959.
DOBAI. J. Gustav Klimt. no. 76. Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1961, no. 3.
Exhibitions: Wiener Secession, Vienna, 1903, no. 41 or 43. Von Schindler bis Klimt, Vienna, 1955, no. 140.
Wiener Secession, Vienna, 1928, no. 40. Osterreichische Landschaftsmalerei von Schindler
Ausstellungshaus FriedrichstraBe, Vienna, 1943, bis Klimt, Graz, 1957, no. 27.
no. 30. Biennale, Venice, 1958, no. 5.
Von Schindler bis Klimt, Vienna, 1955, no. 137. Literature: BAHR, and altenberg, p. Das Werk von
H.
Osterreichische Landschaftsmalerei von Schindler Gustav Klimt, Leipzig and Vienna, 1918, p. 2.
bis Klimt, Graz, 1957, no. 28. tietze, H. "Klimt, Gustav", U. Thieme-
Literature: iievesi, l. Acht Jahre Secession, 18971905, F. Becker, Leipzig, vol. XX, 1927, p. 505.
Vienna, 1906, p. 370. Liechtenstein, "Gustav Klimt unci
M.-j.
dobai, J. no. 115. seine Oberosterreichischen Salzkammergutland-
schaften", Oberosterreichische Heimatblatter,
July December, 1951, p. 111.
hatle, I, Gustav Klimt, Graz, 1955.
DOBAI, J. no. 117.
36
7H 71
39
7D 7E 7F
7. PROJECT FOR FRIEZE AT THE STOCLET PALACE. Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris, 1961.
1905-1909. no. 325.
This project is a study for a frieze executed in glass mosaic, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1961, nos.
semi-precious stones, majolica, white marble, metal and 78-86.
enamel for the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, designed by Albertina, Vienna, 1962, no. 101, a i.
FARM GARDEN (Flower Garden). 1905-1906. 10. DEATH AND LIFE or DEATH AND LOVE. c. 1908 (re-
Oilon canvas, 431x431" (110x110 cm.). worked 1911).
Signed 1. r. "Gustav Klimt". Oil on canvas, 701 X 78" (178 X 198 cm.).
Collection Narodni Galerie, Prague. Signed 1. r. "Gustav Klimt".
Exhibitions: Kunstschau IT ien. Vienna. 1908. room 22, no. 10. Collection Marietta Preleuthner, Vienna.
Kunstschau Wien, Vienna, 1909, room 22. no. 5. Provenance: Hans Bohler, Vienna.
Deutsch-Bohmischer Kiinstlerbund. Prague. 1910. Exhibitions: Esposizione Internazionale, Rome. 1911, no. 106.
no. 98. Internationale Kunstschau, Dresden, 1912, no.
Moderni Galerie, Prague, 1926, no. 687. 1828.
Modern! Galerie, Prague, 1934, no. 386. Kunsthalle, Mannheim, 1913, no. 195.
Deutsche Gemdlde des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Kiinstlerhaus Rudolphinum, Prague, 1914.
Berlin, 1950. no. 18.
Dum Umeni Mesta Brno. Brno, 1963, no. 10. Deutsch-Bohmischer Kiinstlerbund. Berlin. 1916.
Wien um 1900., Vienna. 1964. no. 43. Deutsch-Bohmischer Kiinstlerbund, Stockholm.
Literature: weixlgartner, a. "Gustav KJimt", Die Gra- L916 or 17.
phischen Kiinste. Vienna, 1912, pp. 49 66. Ein Jahrhundert Wiener Malerei, Zurich, 1918,
tietze. H. "Klimt, Gustav"". U. Thieme- no. 59.
F. Becker, Leipzig, vol. XX, 1927, p. 505. Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1923, no. 123.
honigschmid, "Die Moderne Galerie
R. in Prag". VS iener Secession. V ienna, 1928, no. 70.
Witiko, Kassel, 1928, pp. 126-127. Ausstellungshaus FriedrichstraBe, V ienna, 1943,
DUBAI, j. no. 146. no. 54.
Secession, Vienna, 1950, no. 11.
Secession, Vienna. 1951. no. 55.
ORCHARD. 1907 - 1908. (Dobai dates this work as Biennale, V enice, 1958, no. 10.
1907-1908: Wien um 1900, Vienna. 1964, no. 48.
Carnegie Institute as 1910.) Literature: hevesi, l. Altkunst Neukunst, Vienna, 1909.
Oil and tempera on canvas, 394-X 39-V" (100X 100 cm.). p. 206 ft".
10
11
11. CASTLE KAMMER OX ATTERSEE I. 1909. 12. BLACK FEATHER HAT. 1910.
Oilon canvas. 43^X434/ (110 X 110 cm.). Oilon canvas. 31ix24j" (79x63 cm.).
Signed I. r. "Gustav Klimt". Signed and dated I. r. "Gustav Klimt, 1910".
Collection Xarodni Galerie. Prague. Collection \ iktor Fogarassy, Graz.
Exhibitions: Kunslschau Wien, Vienna, 1909, room 22, no. 3. Provenance: Rudolf Kahler. Vienna.
Kiinstlerhaus Rudolphinum. Prague, 1910. Beran, Prague.
no. 100. Exhibitions: IX. Esposizione Internazionale di 1 enezia.
Moderni Galerie. Prague. 1926. no. 686. \ enice, 1910, Klimt room, no. 19.
Moderni Galerie. Prague. 1934, no. 388. Ausstellungshaus Friedrichstrafie. Vienna, 1943.
Deutsche Nationalgalerie. Rerlin, 1956, no. 29. Academy of Fine Arts. \ ienna. 1948.
Xarodni Galerie. Prague, 1961, no. 3. Die Klassiker der Osterreichischen Kunst von
Diim Umeni Mesta Brno. Brno. 1963. no. 9. Klimt bis Wotruba. Stuttgart. 1957. no. 35.
Wien urn 1900, Vienna. 1964. no. 49. kunsthalle, Diisseldorf, 1959, no. 69.
Literature: hevesi. l. "Internationale Kunstschau in Wien. Xeue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum.
1909". Zeitschrift fiir Bilde.ide Kunst. Leipzig. Graz. 1962. no. 2.
welxlgartner. a. "Gustav Klimt". Die Gra- Gustav Klimt, Leipzig and \ ienna. 1918, p. 4, ill.
phischen Kiinsle. Vienna. 1912. p. 61. eisler. M. Gustav Klimt. 1920. p. 44.
tietze, h. "Klimt, Gustav", U. Thieme- karpfen. F. Gegenuartskunst, vol. 3, Osterreichi-
F. Becker, vol. XX, 1927, p. 505. sche Kunst, \ ienna. 1923, p. 105.
honigschmid. R. "Die Moderne Galerie in hatle. I. Gustav Klimt. Graz. 1955.
Prag". Wiliko, Kassel. 1928. p. 127. strobl, a. Gustav Klimt, Salzburg, 1962, p. 55.
Liechtenstein, "Gustav Klimt und
m.-j. koller. e. "Apotheose der Sinne: Gustav Klimt
seine Oberosterreichischen Salzkammergutland- zum 100. Geburtstag". Alte und Moderne Kunst.
schaften", Oberbsterreichische Heimatbldtter. \ ienna. September 1962 October 1963, p. 6.
July December. 1961. p. 113 ff. dobai. j. no. 161.
hatle. I. Gustav Klimt. Graz. 1955.
dobai. j. no. 163.
43
44
'*WM$M
13 14
Federica Beer-Monti, New York and Vienna. geist, s. "Month in Review", Arts, New York,
Exhibitions: IX. Esposizione Internazionale di lenezia, January 1958, p. 46.
1937, no. 5.
Collection The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gertrude Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1959.
A. Mellon Fund. Literature: Raphael, m. "Die Deutsche Landschaft als
Provenance: Galerie St. Etienne, New York. Malcrisches Sujet", Deutsche Kunst und Deko-
Exhibitions: IX. Esposizione Internazionale di Venezia, rntion, Darmstadt, April September, 1916,
Esposizione Internazionale Rome, 1911, Austrian eisler, m. Gustav Klimt, 1920, p. 45.
Pavilion, no. 109. pirchan, e. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1942, pi. VI;
Glaspalast, Munich, 1913, no. 6556. 1956, ill. in color after pi. 140.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1950, no. 15. hatle, I. Gustav Klimt, Graz, 1955.
The Museum of Modern Art,New York, 1957. dobai, j. no. 178.
45
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15
46
18
17
Collection Narodni Galerie, Prague. EISLER, M. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1920, p. 44.
Exhibitions: Glaspalast, Munich, 1913, no. 1595. TIETZE, H. "Klimt, Gustav", U. Thieme-
Kiinstlerhaus Rudolphinum, Prague, 1914, F. Becker, vol. XX, Leipzig, 1927, p. 505.
no. 23. honigschmid, R. "Die Moderne Galerie in
Moderni Galerie, Prague, 1926, no. 788. Prag", Witiko, Kassel, 1928, p. 127.
Modern! Galerie, Prague, 1934, no. 387. eisler, M. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1931, pp.
Narodni Galerie. Prague, 1947, no. 174. 12-13.
Deutsche Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1956. volavka, v. Pruvodce po Moderni Galerie.
rcr*
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20
19. FRIEDERICKE MARIA REER. 1916. 20. ORCHARD WITH ROSE RUSHES. 1916.
Oil on canvas, 664. X 51 " (168 x 130 cm.). Oilon canvas, 434, X 43-}" (110x110 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. 1. "Gustav Klimt, 1916; u.r. Friederieke Signed 1. 1. "Gustav Klimt".
Maria Reer". Collection Viktor Fogarassy, Graz.
Collection Federica Reer-Monti, New York and Vienna. Provenance: Reran, Prague.
Exhibitions: Kunstschau Wien, Vienna, 1920, room IX. Galerie Welz, Salzburg.
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1929, no. 76. Exhibitions: Osterreichische Landschaftsmalerei von Schindler
Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1950, no. 16. bis Klimt, Graz, 1957, no. 29.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1959. Die Klassiker der Osterreichischen Kunst von
Galerie Nebehay, Vienna, 1963. Klimt bis Wotruba, Stuttgart, 1957, no. 36.
Literature: steinmetz, l. "Kunstschau 1920", Kunst und Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum.
Kunsthandwerk, Vienna, 1920, p. 189. Graz, 1962, no. 6.
eisler, M. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1920, p. 16. Wien um 1900, Vienna, 1964, no. 40.
eisler, M. Gustav Klimt. Vienna. 1931, no. 24. Literature: strobl, a. Gustav Klimt. Salzburg, 1962, no. 58.
fleischmann, B. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1916, ill.
21
22
52
23
hatle, I. Gustav Klimt, Graz, 1955. Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1959.
PIRCHAN, E. Gustav Klimt. Vienna, 1956, pi. 109. Galerie St. Etienne, New
York, 1964, no. 15.
dobai. j. no. 197. Literature: fischel. h. "Klimt NachlaB bei Nebehay",
Kunst und Kunsthanduerk. ^ ienna. 1919, p. 178.
tietze, H. "Gustav Klimts Personlichkeit. nach
Mitteilung seiner Freunde", Die Bildenden
Kiinste, Vienna, 1919, p. 1 ff.
24
54
,tit
i.IIOI'P EXHIBITIONS OF PAINTINGS
Only books, periodicals and exhibitions which refer to specific wiener secession, Vienna, 1902.
paintings in this exhibition are listed in the documentation section Grofie Kunstausstellung, Dresden, 1904.
ONE MAN EXHIBITIONS OF PAINTINGS academy of fine arts, Vienna, 1948, Entwicklung der Oster-
reichischen Kunst. I on 1897 bis 1938.
galerie ST. etienne, New
York, April 1950, Austrian Painting
of the Nineteenth Century, from Waldmuller to Klimt. Catalogue
wiener secession, Vienna, November December, 1903, introduction by Ernst Buschbeck.
XVIII. Ausstellung, Gustav Klimt. Catalogue introduction wiener secession, Vienna, 1950, Wiener Secession 19001950.
by E. Stohr and C. Moll. Deutsche Gemalde des Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts aus tschechischen
IX. Esposizione Internationale di Venexia, Venice, 1911). klimt Museen, Berlin, 1950.
room. wiener secession, Vienna, 1951, Unsterbliches Wien im Spiegel
wiener secession, Vienna, June 27 July 31, 1928, Gediichtnis- DEUTSCHE nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1956, Deutsche Gemalde des
ausstellung Gustav Klimt. Neunzehnten Jahrhunderts ous tschechischen Museen.
AUSSTELLUNGHAUS FRIEDRICHSTRASSE (formerly SECESSION), osterreiciiisches museum fur angewandte kunst, Vienna,
Vienna, February 7 March 7, 1943, Gustav Klimt Ausstel- December 1956, Die Wiener Werkstdtte.
by Fritz Novotny.
lung. Catalogue introduction Die Klassiker der Osterreichischen Kunst von Klimt bis Wotruba,
XXIX. INTERNAZIONALE BIENNALE DI VENEZIA, Venice, 1958, Stuttgart, 1957.
Gustav Klimt. Catalogue introduction by Otto Benesch, Oslerreichische Landschaftsmalerei von Schindler bis Klimt, Graz,
galerie ST. etienne, New York, April 1959, Gustav Klimt. the museum OF modern art, New York, 1957, Recent Acquisitions.
Catalogue introduction by Otto Kallir, n. p. osterreichisches museum fur angewandte kunst, Vienna,
NEUE GALERIE AM LANDESMUSEUM JOANNEUM, Graz, June 22 Kunstgewerbe des 20. Jahrhunderts, 1959.
July 22, 1962. Gedachtnisausstellung aus Anlafi des 100. Ge- kunsthalle, Diisseldorf, 1959, Osterreichische Malerei 18301900.
burtstages von Gustav Klimt, 14. Juli 18626. Februnr 1918. musee national d'art moderne, Paris, November 4, 1960
Catalogue introduction by Dr. Trude Aldrian, n. p. January 23, 1961, Sources of the XXth Century, the Arts in
OSTERREICHISCHE galerie, Vienna, October 15 December 16, Europe from 1884 1914. Catalogue introductions by Jean
1962, Gustav Klimt. Catalogue introduction by Fritz Novotny, Cassou, Giulio Carlo Argan, Nicolaus Pevsner, pp. 15 55.
n. p. the galerie st. etienne, New York, March 14 April 8, 1961,
albertina, Vienna, October 16 December 16, 1962, Gustav Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Kubin.
Klimt 1862 1918, Zeichnungen. Catalogue introduction by PALAIS des beaux-arts, Brussels, April May, 1961, Art Autri-
Walter Koschatzky and Alice Strobl, pp. 3 12. (Although chien du I ingticme Siecle.
a drawing exhibition, Stoclet Frieze included.) NARODNI GALERIE, Prague. 1961, Rakouske Umeni, XX. Sloleti
Icti.
M. N[ebeha\ ], n. p.
55
I inonn mi s
university art gallery, The University oi' California, Berkeley, Ver Sacrum, Secession, Mitteilungen der Osterreichischen Kiinstler-
February 5
March 10, 1963; pasadena art museum, vereinigung, Vienna, vol. 6, no. 22, 1903, pp. 361 383.
Pasadena, March 19 April 21, 1963, Viennese Expressionism hevesi, ludwig. "Internationale Kunstschau in Wien, 1909",
1910 1924. Catalogue introduction by Herschel B. Chipp, Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, Leipzig, vol. XX, no. 10, 1909,
Europdische Kunst um die J ahrhundertwende. Catalogue intro- Alle, Munich, vol. 25, October, 1909, pp. 20-22.
duction by Siegfried Wichmann, pp. 1 19. pollak, oskar. "Die Internationale Kunstausstellung in Rom,
I?ien um 1900, Vienna, June 5 August 30, 1964. Exhibition of 1911", Zeitschrift fiir bildende Kunst, Leipzig, vol. XXII,
painting, sculpture, graphics, organized by the city of Vienna; no. 12, 1911, p. 288.
paintings shown at the secession. weixlgartner, arpad. "Gustav Klimt", Die Graphischen Kiinste,
galerie ST. etienne, New York, October 17 November 14, Vienna, vol. XXXV, 1912, pp. 49-66.
1964, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition. STORK, willy f. "Die Ausstellung des Deutschen Kunstlerbundes
the Baltimore museum OF art, Baltimore, October 6 Novem- in Mannheim, 1913", Kunst fiir Alle, Munich, vol. 28, August
ber 15, 1964, 1914, An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and 1913, p. 481.
Sculpture. Catalogue introduction by George Boas, Henri Peyre, "Ausstellung des Deutschen Kunstlerbundes in Mannheim, 1913",
Lincoln F. Johnson, Jr., Gertrude Rosenthal, pp. 11 30. Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, Darmstadt, vol. XXXIII,
October 1913 -March 1914, p. 11.
GLASER, [curt]. "Berliner Ausstellung", Kunstchronik, Leipzig,
vol. XXVII, no. 19, February 4, 1916, p. 189.
hevesi, ludwig. Altkunst Neukunst, Wien 1894 1908, Vienna, FISCHEL, hartwig. "Klimt Naehlafi bei Nebehay", Kunst und
1909. Kunsthandwerk, Vienna, vol. XXII, 1919, p. 178.
BAHR, HERMANN and ALTENBERG, PETER. Das Werk von Gustav STEINMETZ, L. "Kunstschau, 1920", Kunst und Kunsthandwerk,
Klimt, Leipzig and Vienna, Hugo Heller Kunstverlag, 1918. Vienna, vol. XXIII, 1920, p. 189.
eisler, max. Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1920. honigschmid, "Die Moderne Galerie in Prag", Witiko, Kassel,
r.
karpfen, fritz. Gegenwartskunst, vol. 3: Osterreichische Kunst, vol. I, 1928, pp. 126-127.
Lexikon der Bildenden Kiinstler, vol. XX, Leipzig, Verlag von reichische Heimatbldtter, Institute fiir Landeskunde, Ober-
E. A. Seemann, 1927. osterreichisches Landesmuseum, Linz, vol. 5, no. 3-4, July
eisler, max. Gustav Klimt, an Aftermath, Vienna, Austrian State December, 1951.
Printing Office, 1931. Edition republished in 1946 by Franz "Painting and Sculpture Acquisitions", The Museum of Modern
Deuticke, Vienna, with new text by benno fleischmann, ArlBulletin, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, vol. XXV,
Gustav Klimt, Eine Nachlese. no. 4, January 1, 1957 - December 31, 1957, p. 22, ill. p. 5.
volavka, vojtech. Pruvodce po Moderni Galerii, Prague, 1934. GEIST, SIDNEY. "Month in Review", Arts, New York, vol. 32,
pirchan, emil. Gustav Klimt, ein Kiinstler aus Wien, Vienna, January 1958, p. 46.
no. 4,
Leipzig, Verlag Wallishausser, 1942. C. G. Review of exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne, New York,
fleischmann, benno. See Eisler, Max, 1931. Art News, New York, vol. 158, no. 2, April 1959, p. 12.
hatle, ingomar. Gustav Klimt, Ein Wiener Maler des Jugendstils. werner, alfred. "The World of Gustav Klimt", Arts, New York,
Dissertation from Graz University, 1955 (unpublished manu- vol. 33, no. 7, April 1959, pp. 25-31.
script). JACOBUS, JOHN, JR. "Art Nouveau in New York". Burlington
PIRCHAN, EMIL. Gustav Klimt, Foreword by A. Griinberg, Vienna, Magazine, London, vol. CII. no. 690, September 1960.
selz, PETER. German Expressionist Painting, Berkeley and Los ANKWICZ VON kleehoven, HANS. "Josef Hoffmann: Das Palais
Angeles, University of California Press, 1956. Stoclet in Briissel", Alte und Moderne Kunst, Vienna, vol. 6,
SELZ, peter and CONSTANTINE, MILDRED, eds. Art Nouveau, with no. 42, January 1961, p. 7 If., ill. 8.
articlesby Greta Daniel, Alan M. Fern, Henry- Russell STRACHWITZ. artur GRAF. "Ein Wiener Haus in Briissel". Alte
Hitchcock and Peter Selz, New York, The Museum of Modern und Moderne Kunst, Vienna, vol. 7, no. 60-61. July August.
Art, 1959. 1962, p. 22 ff., ill. 3.
schmutzler, ROBERT. Art Nouveau, New York, Harry N. Abrams, KOLLER, ERNST. "Apotheosc der Shine: Gustav Klimt zum
Inc., 1962. 10(1. Geburtstag", Alte und Moderne Kunst, Vienna, vol. 7.
STROBL, ALICE. Gustav Klimt, Zeichnungen and Gemiilde, Salzburg, no. 62-63, October 1963, pp. 6 11.
September 1962 -
Verlag Galerie Welz, 1962. zemina, jaromir. "Osterreichische Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts
dobai, Johannes. Gustav Klimt, Salzburg, Verlag Welz (in prepa- in der CSSR". Alte ami Moderne Kunst, Vienna, vol. 8,
ration). no. 67, March- April, 1963, pp. 48-49.
urn SC1IIELE
59
IMi
1908 Schiele's work was shown for the first time at Klosterneuburg in a group exhibition
of local artists.
Worked off' and on for the Wiener W erkstatte. avant-garde workshop of arts and
crafts in Vienna.
60
1909 At Klimt 's invitation exhibited four paintings in the \ ieima international Kunstschau
where works of Kokoschka and Van Gogh were also represented.
In April Schiele with a group of like-minded voung artists withdrew from the
Academy and formed an independent organization ]\eukiinstgruppe Wien which had
its first exhibition that year at the Kunstsalon Pisco.
Schiele'swork admired by the collector Heinrich Benesch and the newspaper art
Arthur Roessler, who befriended and encouraged him.
critic,
shows abroad.
Contributed to the magazine Die iktimi in Berlin.
61
Met the Harms sisters, Adelle and Edith; began active courtship of Edith.
1915 May 31st drafted into the Austrian army. June 17th, married Edith Harms.
June 21st, with Edith reported to Prague for military duty; recalled to Vienna after
basic training.
Exhibited in Zurich and Vienna. His painter friend Paris von Giitersloh published
a small monograph on him.
Major canvases including Portrait of his Wife, Soaring and Death and Maiden.
1916 Declared unfit for combat duty for reasons of health and assigned in May to guard duty
at the village of Miihling where he sketched the Russian prisoners of war.
Participated in four exhibitions in Germany and one in Vienna.
Die Aktion devoted the pictorial part of September issue to his work.
its
Painted Portrait of an Old Man (his father-in-law) and The Saw Mill.
1917 Transferred to Vienna and assigned to the Army Museum.
He had more time for painting, living at home, with a regular schedule and
began at least sixteen major oils that year.
Portfolio with twelve reproductions of his drawings published.
Invited to exhibit in Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Amsterdam and Stockholm.
Despite growing reputation his poverty and debts continued and, at Ediths urging.
he produced many drawings for quick sale.
Most of the recent literature concerning Egon Schiele has been focused on the artist's
remarkable draughtsmanship to the unjustified neglect of his paintings. Certainly one of the major
reasons for this neglect can be explained by simple mathematics: the number of paintings which
the artist produced during his very brief period of creativity was quite small whereas the graphic
production was unusuallv large. Otto Nirenstein-Kallir lists fewer than 250 works in his first
catalogue of Schiele's paintings, and nearly fifty of them were painted prior to the artist's eighteenth
birthday. Although some paintings have been re-discovered during the thirty-five years since
the catalogue was originallv published, still others have been lost or destroyed.
Even aside from the paucity of paintings, there is a tendency to think of them as colored
"painter" and "draughtsman" are employed in their conventional sense, i.e., one who exploits
the free flow of paint and brush as contrasted to one whose compositions are marked by a bold
linearitv, then with several notable exceptions the statement concerning the two artists is
generally valid.
a painter. 2 Bv and large, the drawings which he rapidly dashed onto paper were exercises which
provided him a meager source of income or they were sketches and studies which yielded him
a storehouse of forms to be incorporated later into paintings. The stvlistic development of his
paintings parallels that of his drawings. However, during the last few years of his life, the forms
in his paintings tend toward a monumentality akin to that of his Swiss contemporary, the muralist
Ferdinand Hodler whom Schiele greatlv admired. This monumental effect does not appear to be
It is in the realm of subject matter rather than stvle that the greatest difference lies
between the artist's graphic works and his paintings. Some subjects which occur frequently in
his drawings erotic themes, for example are seldom found in the paintings. On the other hand,
houses and eityseapes comprise a relatively greater part of his painting activity. The intimate
medium is more often employed to depict the intimate scene whereas the broader expanse of
canvas is used to portray a man-made or a natural environment.
Schiele's paintings can be divided into four major categories portraits, trees and landscapes,
houses and eityseapes, and various universal themes and allegories which will be briefly examined.
All of the works discussed will date from the time that Schiele established his own personal style
of painting in 1910.
64
The spring of the previous year was undoubtedly the single most significant period in
his life. During that time a series of events occurred which culminated in his artistic independence
a year later. Threatened with expulsion from the academy because of a 13-point indictment in
the form of a petition against the academic system in general and against the arch-conservative
painting instructor Professor Christian Griepenkerl in particular (for example, point two was:
"Ts Nature only that which the Herr Professor recognizes as such?") 3 , Schiele and his fellow
students in Griepenkerl's painting class withdrew from the academy. On June 17. 1909. the
Xeukunstgruppe (Modern Art Group) was formed by sixteen young artists, most of whom had
been members of GriepenkerPs class. Schiele was elected president of the group. Although no
philosophy was set forth in the document which organized the Neukunstgruppe (the name appears
to have been selected later), one can assume that its ideals were closely related to the indictment
against the academy.
Schiele exhibited his paintings for the first time in \ ienna in the Internationale Kunstschau
1909, a show in which nearly 170 artists from nine European countries were represented. Many
Viennese artists were, of course, included, among them Klimt and Kokoschka, but the paintings
by Van Gogh. Matisse. Vlaminck. Bonnard. Munch and others must have made a tremendous
impression on the nineteen year old Schiele. Works by these modern masters had rarely been
exhibited in Vienna and their liberating effect swept through the ateliers of the younger artists
in the city. By the following year Schiele's personality had found its individual means of expression.
Of the four chief subject categories of paintings, only portraiture is found in proportionally
equal numbers in both painting and drawing. Portraits appear in Schiele's work throughout his
life from the youthful Self-Portrait of 1907 to that of his friend and fellow artist Paris von Giitersloh
of 1918. One of the first portraits by Schiele after the Kunstschau 1909 was the Portrait of Eduard
Kosmack, painted in 1910. It marks a distinct departure from the Klimt-inspired Portrait of Gerta
Schiele of the previous year. Kosmack is depicted in a pose which is strongly reminiscent of that
of the adolescent nude in Edvard Munch's various versions of Puberty, executed from 1886 1894
(see also Schiele's earlier Portrait of Poldi Lodzinskx). The body is rigid and tense. The white of
the shirt collar, the lapels, emphasized by being darker than the rest of the suit, and the large \
formed by Kosmack's arms establish a repetitive motif which culminates in his hands clasped
tightly together between his thighs. The eyes staring widely at the viewer and the nervously
moving, sharply angular silhouette increase the tension. A strange double-toned, gray and white
background pushes the sitter forward. The wilting sunflowers by Kosmack"s side are the only
is dominated by the symmetrical silhouette which tends to mitigate the internal movement.
Schiele has portrayed his sitter as a man who has consciously and, one feels, only temporarily
but, despite the staring eves and the strange gestures, the tension has been somewhat relaxed.
As in the earlier portrait, von Giitersloh does not exist in a specific place, but now the background
is alive with paint and movement as is the sitter himself. There is a greater sense of weight and
volume which is supported by a few lines and brushstrokes indicating a chair. One of the most
65
bizarre but expressive devices which Schiele employed in early portraits, e.g., Portrait of the Painter
Zakovsek and Seated Model with Raised Arms, was to omit the chair or other means of support
for his figures. Consequentlv. poses which are quite normal when seen in the context of such supports,
become inexplicable and extremely disquieting without them.
To use the word "landscape" to describe the scenes of nature painted by the artist between
1910 and 1918 is perhaps to use a misnomer; his mature paintings of Nature are primarily depictions
of trees (during his student days he had painted numerous conventional landscapes in which
short, impressionistic brushstrokes were used, but rarely do these works forecast the linearity
which was soon to become dominant). The artist often compared trees and plants and their
attributes to human beings. In 1913 he wrote to one of his patrons: "... I make studies also but
I find and know that sketching after Nature is meaningless for me; because I paint better pictures
after memory, as a vision of the landscape. Now I am observing primarily the physical movement
of mountains, water, trees and flowers. One is reminded everywhere of similar movements in human
bodies, in similar emotions of joy and suffering in plants." The trees which he paints are usually
saplings and most often, as in Winter Trees or Autumn Sun, they are tied to an upright stick
which provides support. The sapling at the right in the latter painting would be helpless and could
not long exist without assistance. The three gesturing trees of Autumn Trees have limbs and branches
which are exactly alike; the only difference is the color of the support of the middle tree which
reaches toward heaven with its companions. The small wedge of leaf-covered earth seems to indicate
the top of a hill. One finds it difficult to resist associating the three trees with the Three Crosses
on Golgotha. In a painting of the following year, Mt. Calvary (Nirenstein 121 -- not in the
exhibition), Schiele portrays the Three Crosses (that of Christ rising higher than the others) against
a horizon. A procession of barren trees moves in single file past the crosses. The tree nearest Christ
bows at a 45 degree angle, its naked branches extended toward Christ. The identification of the
trees as pilgrims is given further credibility by the inclusion of a wayfarer's shrine at the right.
To interpret all of Schiele's tree paintings in religious terms would certainly be a mistake: however,
there is sufficient evidence in letters and in the paintings themselves to interpret his trees
anthropomorphicalh .
Schiele had a predilection for autumn as is demonstrated by the titles of many of his
paintings. "... I love autumn; not only as a season of the year, but also as a condition of man
and things and therefore cities also. The soft and gentle melancholy by which Nature seems
entwined in the autumn breathes out even from old walls, fills the heart with sadness and thereby
reminds us that we are only pilgrims on this earth". 4 This mood is reflected in his paintings of
cities and houses. Buildings worn by time continue to stand proudly. Rarely is there any form
of life in Schiele's cities and when humans do make an appearance, as in The Edge of Town, they
are not individuals but only minor attributes of the cities they've created. Nothing moves. The
towns seem to exist in a vacuum not unlike archeological discoveries intended for a museum.
Dcuil City was the title given to a painting of the old Bohemian town of Ixrumau (present-day
Ceskv Krumlov) which he often visited.
A postcard sent to his wife bears a photograph of the town of Raltcnberg. On the photograph
Schiele placed an X on top of a hillside indicating the position from which he had made two drawings
of the town. The view from above looking down on the multi-colored painted roofs oi the old houses
66
appears frequently. The panoramic bird's-eye view which one associates with Kokoschkas famous
series of citvscapes of the 1920's does not apply, however, to Schiele for he often paints only a few
blocks of a town. The rigid linearity of his canvases does not induce speculation as to what lies
Such a painting as The City Stein of 1913 may have been thought of as being cubistic because
of the geometrically simplified forms of buildings and hillside, but the volumetric block-like aspect
of Cubism is lacking. Since The Hermits, 1912, was also considered cubistic by one of the Viennese
art critics, it is evident that there was some confusion about the meaning of the word. Presumably
the compartmentalization of the hermits' robes and the lines emanating from the flowers led to
the epithet. This tendency toward abstraction carried further in Agony (Nirenstein 108 not in
the exhibition) may have been a result of Schiele's first brief trip to Munich in 1912 where he
could have seen Cubist-inspired works by Marc, Macke. and other artists. 6 Picasso and Braque
had exhibited in 1912 at the second Blue Rider exhibit at the Galerie Hans Goltz; Goltz was
Schiele's dealer in Munich and there is, of course, a good possibility that Cubist works would have
been in stock for Schiele to examine while he was there.
Allegories, visionary themes, and such universal subjects as birth, life, and death comprise
the fourth category of Schiele's subject matter. One of the earliest and most poignant of these
works is Dead Mother I. Painted just prior to Christmas, 1910, the theme appears to have been
borrowed from Munch or Max Klinger, but the composition almost certainly stems from Klimt's
The Family of the same vear. However, the feelings evoked by the two paintings are totally different.
A sense of relative calm pervades Klimt's painting of a mother and her two children sleeping.
Schiele, in a much smaller format, has focused on the face and hands of the infant and its dead
mother. The initial effect is one of horror. The dull greens and browns of the mother's decaying
flesh, the elongated skeletal hand, the sharp, bony lines of jaw and chin, and the deep eye sockets
create a sense of doom and despair. In contrast, the infant is painted in reds and oranges, colors
of life and blood. The infant is enclosed within an irregular circle which, in the pictorial context
of the painting, may be interpreted as a womb. This interpretation is supported by the painting
Dead Mother II (Birth of a Genius) (Nirenstein 85 not in the exhibition) of the following year.
In the latter work the mother's face is not obscured, and the womb has been located in the middle
of the thorax (as in Dead Mother I only the upper part of the torso has been depicted) the infant's ;
right hand has already emerged from its mother's body. 7 The mother has fulfilled her mission
on earth and now succumbs as the life which she created begins its cycle of existence. Though
the subject is a universal one, Schiele's letters and the writings of Roessler suggest that several
of the Mother series including Blind Mother may have symbolized the artist's personal problems
Toward the end of his life Schiele had begun plans for a mausoleum which was to have
been decorated with frescoes representing Death, the Stages of Life, Religion, Earthly Existence
and other similar subjects. According to the painter Johannes Fischer who frequented Schiele's
studio at this time, all of Schiele's later paintings were only studies for the monumental fresco
cycle. The paintings Three Standing Female Nudes and Two Crouching Women are probabK
such studies. There are pencil sketches which relate to these paintings; however, the sketches
often contain additional figures and the iconographv appears to be more complex than is suggested
by the paintings. Unfortunately, the meanings of many of the later works mav remain ambiguous
in their fragmented state as details for the mausoleum because death prevented the artist from
realizing his plans.
The following supposedly is a statement made by the artist on his deathbed: "After my
death, sooner or later, people will undoubtedly praise me and admire my art". 8 That prediction
has already come true insofar as his drawings and watercolors are concerned. It is to be hoped
that exhibitions such as the present one will bring greater recognition to and admiration for the painter
Egon Schiele.
NOTES
The author wishes to acknowledge the Graphische Sammlung Albertina for allowing him access to some
letters by and other documents on Schiele which being in the process of organization are not yet available
to the public.
1. Wolfgang Fischer, "Egon Schiele and the Spirit of Vienna before 1918," in Schiele exhibition catalogue,
3. For the text of the petition see Arthur Roessler, Anton Faistiuer Beitrdge zur Lebens- und Schajfensgeschichte
eines oslerreichischen Kiinstlers, Vienna, Biichergilde Gutenberg, 1947, pp. 15 ff.
4. Arthur Roessler, Erinnerungen an Egon Schiele, 2nd ed.,Vienna, Wiener Volksbuchverlag, 1948, p. 66.
5. Roessler, Erinnerungen . . ., p. 65.
6. Egon und Prosa von Egon Schiele, ed. by Arthur Roessler. Vienna, Richard Lanyi, 1921, letter
Schiele, Briefe
to Dr. Oskar Reichel, dated 17 August 1912, p. 147.
7. The artist Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, wife of the renowned architect, had painted a gesso relief in 1902
titled Motherhood (Glasgow School of Art). A womb-like form enclosing a nude baby is centered in the billowing
skirt of one of the women in the painting; there is no question that a womb is being depicted. The artist had
exhibited three works in the Kunstschau 1909 (the catalogue elaborates no further). The Mackintoshes had been
very popular and much admired in Vienna since the turn of the century. During a six-week stay in the city,
they had designed a salon for the residence of Fritz Warndorfer, one of the leaders of the Wiener Werkstatte,
Vienna's contribution to art nouveau fashion and design. (Ludwig Hevesi, Altkunst Neukunst Wien 1894 1908,
Vienna, Carl Konegen, 1909, pp. 221 ff.) Whether Schiele could have seen Motherhood is questionable; however,
he could have been familiar with other works by the artist in which like motifs were used.
8. Hans Ankwicz von Kleehoven, "Egon Schiele (1890 1918)," Das Kunsluerk, V, no. 3, 1951, p. 29.
PAIXTMiS l\ THE EXHIBIT
69
22
CATALOGUE
Provenance: Estate of the arti^i. Collection Dr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Eckhardt, Winnipeg.
Neue Galerie, Vienna. Exhibitions: Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, 1948.
Exhibitions: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1960,
Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1948, no. 16.
no. 1.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1960,
University Art Gallery, University of California,
no. 7.
Berkeley, 1963, no. 20. Literature: NIRENSTEIN, O., no. 61.
Literature: nirenstein, o. Egon Schiele, Berlin, Vienna,
Leipzig, 1930, no. 20.
STUDY OF A NUDE. 1908. 4. PORTRAIT OF GERTA SCHIELE. 1909.
Oil on canvas, 9J X 7 "
(24.4 X 18 cm.). Oil on canvas, 54jx54j" (139X 139 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. I. "Schiele, Egon 08". Signed and entitled Signed and dated u. r. "E. S. 1909".
on reverse. Collection Yiktor Fogarassy. Graz.
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Donald S. Stralem, New York. Provenance: Marie Schiele. Vienna.
Exhibitions: Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, 196 1. no. 2. Anton Peschka, Vienna.
Literature: benesch, O. "Egon Schiele 2: The Artist", Tina Klein, Vienna.
Studio International, London. October 1964. \\ . Gurlitt. Berlin.
ill. p. 175. Exhibitions: Neue Galerie, Vienna. 1948. no. 15.
Wien urn 1900. Vienna, 1964. no. 97
Literature: NIRENSTEIN, o.. no. r>2.
72
73
Oil on canvas, 43^x17^" (110x45.3 cm.). Oil on wood, 12|x 10 j" (32.4X 25.8 cm.).
1. "E. Sehiele 09".
Signed and dated u. Signed and dated u. r. "S. 10".
Lent by Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London. Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna.
ill. p. 27.
breicha, o. and fritsch, G. eds. Finale und
hi
75
11
10. RED EARTH. 1910. 11. SEATED MODEL WITH RAISED ARMS. 1910.
Oilon canvas, 20x 19j" (52x50 cm.). Tempera and oil on canvas, 60x59" (152 X 150 cm.).
M. Goldschmidt and Co., Frankfurt, 1926. Literature: nirenstein, o., no. 59.
12 14
15 16
15. MOTHER AND DEATH. 1911. 16. STILL LIFE WITH CIGARETTES I. 1911.
Oil on canvas, 39-^x39+" (lOOx 100 cm.). Oil on wood. 13fxl0f" (34 X 27.5 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. e. "Egon Schiele 1911". Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1911".
Collection Narodni Galerie, Prague. Collection Narodni Galerie, Prague.
Provenance: Dr. Oskar Reichel, Vienna. Provenance: Einil Toepfer, Vienna.
Neue Galerie, Vienna. Literature: nirenstein, o., no. 92.
17 19
grohmann, w. "Sehiele, Egon", U. Thieme- CHH>i>, ii. "A Neglected Expressionist Move-
F. Becker, Leipzig, 1936, p. 59. ment Viennese 19101924", Arlforum.
werner, A. "Rediscovering Austrian Art", San Francisco, 1963, p. 25.
Arts, New York, April 1964, p. 57. ill.
8(1
18
20
23
no. 16.
Literature: nirenstein, o., no. 107.
84
24
24. MOTHER AND CHILD. 1912. 26. THE HERMITS. 1912. (Illustration page 13.)
Oil on wood. 14+xllJ" (36.7x30 cm.). Oil on canvas. 71Lx71" (181x180.5 cm.).
Signed and dated c. r. "Egon Schiele 1912". Signed and dated 1. I. "Egon Schiele 1912".
Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold. Vienna. Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna.
Provenance: Emil Toepfer, Vienna. Provenance: Estate of the artist. Vienna.
Neue Galerie, Vienna. Arthur Stemmer, \ienna.
Professor Paul Clairmont. Zurich. Exhibitions: Hagenbund, Vienna. 1912. no. 226.
Exhibitions: Sonderbund, Cologne, 1913. Kunstsalon Golz. Munich. 1913, no. 18.
Neue Galerie, Vienna. 1923, no. 22. Galerie Wurthle, Vienna. 1925, no. 23.
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 32. M. Goldschmidt and Co.. Frankfurt, 1926.
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, 1964, Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 41a.
no. 15. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1956, no. 223.
Literature: NIRENSTEIN, o., no. 111. Marlborough Fine Art Ltd.. London, 1964,
no. 17.
Literature: karpfen. f. Das Eoon-Schiele-Buch. Vienna.
1921.pl. 10.
NIRENSTEIN. O.. no. 106.
28
Oil on canvas, 31ix31A/' (80.3 X 80 cm.). Oil on canvas, 31 + X 35|" (80.1 X 89.8 cm.).
Signed and dated u. 1. "Egon Schiele 1912". Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1913".
Exhibitions: Hagenbund, Vienna, 1912, no. 235. Exhibitions: Kunstsalon Arnot, Vienna. 1914, no. 3.
Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1923, no. 10. Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin, 1926, no. 15.
Ausstellung Moderner Osterreichischer Kunst in Ausstellung Moderner Osterreichischer Kunst in
den Niederlanden, The Hague, Rotterdam. den Niederlanden, The Hague. Rotterdam.
Amsterdam, 1927 28, no. 19. Amsterdam, 1927 28, no. 21.
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 36. Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 47.
Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1930. Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1930.
Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1948, no. 34. Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1941.
Museum, Amsterdam,
Stedelijk 1956, no. 225. Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1948, no. I.
Literature: MRENSTEIN, O., no. 119. Wien urn 1900. Vienna. 1964. no. 104.
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London. 1964.
no. 18.
Literature: nirenstein, 0., no. 133.
86
29 30
29. SETTING SUN. 1913. 30. SMALL TOWN III. (Town on The Black River.) 1913.
Oilon canvas, 35x35" (89.3x89.2 cm.). Oilon canvas, 351x354/ (90x90 cm.).
Signed and dated c. r. "Egon Schiele 1913". Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1913".
Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna. Collection \iktor Fogarassy, Graz.
Provenance: Arthur Roessler, Vienna. Provenance: Dr. M. Jung, Vienna.
Exhibitions: Kunstsalon Golz, Munich. 1913, no. 2. Exhibitions: Wien um 1900, \ ienna, 1964, no. 105.
Kunstsalon Arnot, 1914, no. 9. Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London. 1964.
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 44. no. 21.
Neue Galerie, Vienna. 1948, no. 37. Literature: nirenstein, o.. no. XXVIII.
Literature: nirenstein, o., no. 131.
87
31 33
31. STEIN ON THE DANUBE. 1913. 33. THE CITY STEIN II. 1913.
Encaustic on canvas, 35|x35|" (90.4 X 90.4 cm.). Oilon canvas, 35|x35|" (89.8x89.6 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1913". Signed and dated u. r. "Egon Schiele 1913".
Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna. Private Collection, LT.S.A.
Provenance: Franz Hauer, Vienna. Provenance: Franz Hauer, Vienna.
Heinrich Mayer, Vienna. Guido Arnot, Vienna.
Exhibitions: Kunstsalon Arnot, Vienna, 1914 15, no. 16. Otto Nirenstein, Vienna.
Ausstellung Osterreichischer Kunst, Stockholm, Exhibitions: Kunstsalon Arnot, Vienna, 1914, no. 14.
1917. Ausstellung Osterreichischer Kunst, Stockholm.
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1956, no. 226. 1917.
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, 1964, Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin. 1926. no. 10.
no. 19. Ausstellung Moderner Osterreichischer Kunst in
Literature: nirenstein, o., no. 125. den Niederlanden, The Hague, Rotterdam,
Amsterdam, 1927-28, no. 24.
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 49.
Kunsthaus, Zurich, 1930.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York. 1964, no. 42.
Literature: Wendingen, special volume. "Osterreichische
Kunst", Amsterdam. 1927. p. 7.
NIRENSTEIN, O., no. 126.
32
34
::;:.
91
36
35. PORTRAIT OF FRIEDERICKE MARIA BEER. 1914. 36. THE CITY. 1914.
Oil on canvas, 76 X 47 " (180 X 60 cm.). Encaustic on canvas, 38-Vx 474/ (98x 120 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. 1. "Egon Schiele 1914". Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1914".
Collection Federica Beer-Monti, New York and Vienna. Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna.
Provenance: Marie Hora, Vienna.
Exhibitions: Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1948, no. 6. Exhibitions: Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1948, no. 39.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1960, Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London. 1964.
no. 40. no. 23.
Literature: nirenstein, o., no. XXXIII. Literature: nirenstein, O., no. 144.
92
37
37. YELLOW CITY. 1914. 38. POBTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S WIFE EDITH. 1915.
Oilon canvas, 42x55" (HOx 140 cm.). Encaustic on canvas, 701x434/ (180x110 cm.).
Signed and dated 1. 1. "Egon Schiele 1914". Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1915".
Collection Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Mayer, New York. Collection Gemeentemuseum, The Hague.
Provenance: Private Collection, St. Moritz, Switzerland. Provenance: Guido Arnot, Vienna.
Exhibitions: Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1960, Neue Galerie, Vienna.
no. 39. Exhibitions: Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin, 1926, no. 23.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, 1964, Ausstellung Moderner Osterreichischer Kunst in
no. 211. den Niederlanden, The Hague, Rotterdam,
Literature: nirenstein, o., no. XXXVI. Amsterdam, 1927-28, no. 26.
WERNER, A. "Schiele and Austrian Expres- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, 1960,
sionism", Arts, New York, October 1960, no. 48.
p. 49, ill. Literature: Mededeelingen II van den Dienst voor Kunst en
Wetenschuppen der Gemeente's-Gravenhage, April
1928, p. 127-28 ill. p. 87.
NIRENSTEIN, O. no. 151.
38
94
-**-,***,
39
-10
40. PAINTING OF AN OLD MAN (J. HARMS). 1916. Literature: roessler, a. Kritische Fragmente, Vienna, 1918,
Oil on canvas, 55x43^" (140 X 110.4 cm.). p. 66, f. n.
Signed and dated 1. r. "Egon Schiele 1916". karpfen, F. Das Egon-Sehiele-Buch, Vienna.
Collection Dr. and Mrs. Otto Kallir, New York. 1921, pi. 20.
Provenance: Karl Griinwald, Vienna. faistaiier, a. iVeite Malerei in Osterreich,
Exhibitions: Glaspalast, Munich, 1917. Vienna, 1923, ill. 5.
Secession, Vienna, 1918, no. 6. inirenstein, o., no. 153.
Neue Galcric, Vienna, 1923, no. 6. "Egon Schiele", Art News. New \ork. Decem-
Internationale Kunstausstellung, Dresden, 1926, ber 1-14. 1911, p. 33.
no. 262. "Egon Schiele", Art News, New York. Novem-
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928. ber 1960, p. 12.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1941.
Galerie St. Etienne, New York. 1918, no. 8.
41
42
c. 1917.
Oil on canvas, 43|x 55" (110 X 140 cm.).
Not signed or dated.
Collection Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna.
Provenance: Estate of the artist, Vienna.
Arthur Stemmer, Vienna.
Exhibitions: Galerie Wiirthle, Vienna, 1925, no. 34.
Galerie Gurlitt, Berlin, 1926, no. 25.
M. Goldschmidt and Co., Frankfurt. 1926.
43
M. Goldschmidt and Co., Frankfurt. 1926. WERNER, A. "Schiele and Austrian Expres-
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928. sionism", Arts, New York, October 1960,
Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1948, no. 43. ill. p. 50.
Institute of Contemporary Art, Roston, 1960, CHIPP, H. B. "A Neglected Expressionist Move-
no. 57. ment Viennese 1910 1924", Artforum.
University Art Gallery, University of California, San Francisco. 1963, p. 26.
Rerkeley, 1963, no. 71. nordland, G. "Europe in California", Arts,
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London, 1964, New York, April 1963, p. 17.
44
45
[Cunsthaus, Zurich, 1918, no. 107. buenemann, H. Von Menzel bis Hodler, 1960,
Hagenbund, Vienna, 1928, no. 79. p. 71.
Biennale, Venice, 1948, no. 1 I. werner, a. "Schiele and Austrian Expres-
Neue Galerie, Vienna, 1948, no. 19. sionism", Arts, New York, October 1960, p. 51.
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1951 52,
no. 121.
Secession. \ ienna, 1950.
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna, 1959, no. 106.
103
Y^-SHI
48
-
'
|- 'Jafc ; *"mm''
% Exhibitions: Secession, Vienna, 1918, no. 159.
AussteUung Moderner Osterreichischer Kunst in
Oil on canvas, 28 X 28" (71 X 71 cm.). The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin.
50
107
The essence of Schiele's art is his magnificent draftsmanship; a masterful and prolific
talent for graphic representation. Supplementing the some 200 oil paintings created in his short
life span are several thousand temperas, watercolors and drawings. The pages of his sketch-
books abound with compositional projects. To Schiele drawing was like breathing. He drew
instinctively, continuously and under any condition. He worked with a ferocious speed that
tolerated no erasures, and with an intensity that was undeterred by a model's chance change
of pose.
For Schiele, line functions as the direct transmission of his reactions to inner and outer
stimuli. The immediacy of this line is most forcibly apparent in the intimacy of his sketchbooks,
where a compositional tryout or portrait notation may take shape with a few shorthand strokes.
In the drawings pencil or watercolor the spontaneity of graphic rendition is augmented by
a tectonic marshaling of surfaces. The carefully composed, often "thematic" oils encase Schiele's
line in vibrant, monumental formalizations. In all three media, whether sketchbook, drawing
or painting, Schiele's linear style expresses emotional, highly subjective approach. But the character
of this draftsmanship undergoes significant changes as the artist moves from an initial period
of consciously exploited reaction (1910 1914) toward an increasingly profound interpretation
(19151918).
The influence of Gustav Klimt's elegant Art Nouveau approach is evident in Schiele's
early drawings of 1908 and 1909. Works such as the Four Post Card Designs are highly reminiscent
of klimt in their decorative, almost precious function of line and plane. The strong black-white
contrasts, large flat surface areas, abstract silhouettes, and division of picture space into architectonic
oblongs and squares are all devices popular with the progressive Wiener W erkstatte for which the
post cards were designed. But one year later, at the age of twenty, Schiele suddenly discarded
this format and initiated an independent and highly original artistic style. This new style was
based on a radically selective use of line.
108
A comparison of two drawings, the first dated 1909 and the second dated 1910. illustrates
the wide stylistic chasm Schiele crossed in creating his own idiom. Both drawings are portraits
of fellow- painters. The first, a pencil study for the 1909 oil Portrait of Hans Massmann, is still
conceived under Khmt's influence. The elegant contour of the seated figure is continued in the
decorative silhouette of the chair, and both forms join with the geometric forward-bringing division
of the background to create a pleasing and intricate flat surface pattern which fills the paper to
its edges. The personality of the sitter is equated to if not overwhelmed by his comfortable clothes
and surroundings. The soft qualities suggested in the drawing are further enhanced by the use
of golds, pale yellows, light greens and pinks in the painting. How different is the effect produced
by the drawing. Portrait of Anton Peschka of 1910. With an economy of means, as though a chill
winter wind had blown awav all superfluous details. Schiele has set down a slouching, inelegant
figure that dominates the paper by means of its star contour. The legs are flung apart, the knotted
hands lie where they have fallen, the body droops, and the dark face broods. There is no setting
or background. Clothes and flesh alike are streaked with blacks. The great emphasis upon hands
and face produces a heightened sense of physical presence and contributes to an emotional intensity
which is completely absent in the polished portrait of Hans Massmann. Schiele's selective line
has transformed the dream-like quality of Klimt's Art Nouveau into a startling reality.
This "demasking" approach, which probed and exposed subject matter, whether flower,
house, or living creature, was applied by Schiele to himself as well. An exhaustive series of self-
portraits stems from the years 1910 and 1911 in which a new concept of self-portraiture is introduced.
The Self-Portrait Shrieking of 1910 is a characteristic example. Schiele has shown himself waist
length, his jacket and shirt open, his left arm thrown back out of the picture, and his head raised
on a long hose-like neck. From the mouth comes one of the most terrifying shrieks in modern art.
We might well imagine this as Schiele's answer to Edvard Munch's The Scream, prints of which
circulated in Vienna and were probably seen by the artist. In Schiele's picture there are no outside
forces visibly pressing in upon the figure. Here the shriek is the escaping steam of inner forces
which have come to a furious boil. Color is used exclusively to intensify emotion. The undershirt
is lavender, the jacket is painted in heavy pressing strokes of purple and red. The skin is tinted
with reds and orange. The single tooth gleams a malicious white against the red tongue. Underneath
the wild black eyebrows white has been slapped over the flesh tone, creating a startling effect
of movement. This is far removed from the traditional portrait of the artist in which the connection
with his work or his place in society is usually indicated. Here there is no frame of reference except
self. Nor is the achievement of physical likeness the objective in Schiele's drawing. He is, rather,
concerned with what happens to his physiognomy as the impact of powerful emotions and sensations
is registered upon it. Working with a full-length mirror, he captures the exaggerated pantomimes
of face and body that externalize his inner states. Schiele does not hesitate to exploit the rich
motif of self. His graphic explorations of the psyche and its visible manifestations parallel the
contemporary psycho-sexual studies of Otto Weininger and Sigmund Freud. During this period
Schiele's line is angular and brittle, wiry and tense, hypersensitive to anatomical dictates to the
point of grotesque exaggerations (but never arriving at the deformation of the German Expressionists).
His watercolors remain first of all drawings with color added later and away from the model.
Such brushwork enhancement, especially in 1911 works such as The Artist's Mother Sleeping.
augmented but never displaced Schiele's graphic realization of subject matter.
How dependent Schiele was upon the act of drawing is revealed through a drastic personal
crisis. In the spring of 1912 Schiele was arrested in the small village of Neulengbach. where he
109
had been painting for several months, and imprisoned for twenty-four days on charges of immorality
and seduction. He was locked in a narrow basement cell and, at first, denied not only knowledge
of the charges against him, but also pencil and paper. "I painted, with roots ripped from the soil
of myself, as I am, in order not to go really insane. With a trembling finger I bartered for bitter
spit, and with the help of stains in the plaster I painted landscapes and heads on the walls of my
cell." Schiele recorded in a diary he kept when finally given drawing materials. The twelve water-
colors he was permitted to make present a moving documentation of how drawing became bis
moral support during imprisonment. The first six pictures, beginning with The Single Orange
lias the Only Light, deal with his immediate surroundings and are based on nature with scrupulous
detail. Schiele even depicted the initials "M H", carved by some former prisoner on the upper
horizontal band of the cell door (which are visible there to this day). In this drawing Schiele indicated,
in very light lines, one of the little landscapes he painted with spit before receiving working
materials. Six drawings later he could no longer bear to record the oppressive reality of his surroundings.
(The Door into the Open and Two of My Handkerchiefs.) His thoughts turned inward, upon a vision
of himself as an unjustly suffering prisoner, and in three consecutive days he drew four self-portraits. 7
aggressive. Heartened by the exorcistic qualities inherent in self-portraiture, Schiele's mood changed
from the helpless protest of the pitiable creature depicted in the first self-portrait. Hindering
the Artist is a Crime, It is Murdering Life In the Bud to the positive decision of the last agonized
self-portrait For My Art and For My Loved Ones I Will Gladly Endure to the End. In the last
prison watercolor, Trieste Fishing Boat, he draws upon the world of memory for motifs. This
beautiful picture represents a rare departure from Schiele's method of working directly from
nature. He has painted something real, but to do so he had to depart from reality, from the
oppressiveness of his surroundings. The perfection of detail, the vibrant sense of presence, and
the shimmering colors give triumphant proof of the dimension of Schiele's artistic powers during
the Neulengbacb confinement and reveal bow he was able to sublimate bis sufferings through
drawing.
For several years after the Neulengbach incident Schiele lived the life of a recluse, painting
landscapes and town scenes in which no people are present, and creating a sad procession of monks,
hermits and saints. This physical isolation and thematic asceticism are reflected in his draftsmanship.
A new tendency toward an abstraction of the human figure by means of abbreviation of forms
into evocative geometric shapes appears. The Recumbent Girl icith Green Cap of 1914 is an excellent
example of the extremes to which this abstract approach led in 1914. Although still drawing from
nature, Schiele's delight in tense linear patterns grasps all suggestions of geometricity in the face,
body and drapes, and countless little areas are commandeered into independent pockets of pure
linear energy. Erotic elements assume dehumanized aspects as physical characteristics are
exaggerated for their compositional as well as emotional values. A colored flecking of the skin
with dry strokes of the brush models the figure. The radical stylization of the face with its blank
staring eyes introduces a generalized concept that gives Schiele's line a new freedom to organize
surfaces.
Personal events in Schiele's life during 1915 his marriage to Edith Harms and induction
into the army paralleled a gradual softening of the extreme stylization observed in the 1914
drawings. As he sketched the faces of his fellow soldiers and the round, amiable figure of his wife,
Schiele's line once again changed character. The 1915 Portrait of the Artist's Wife conveys a tender-
110
ness of conception which is matched technically by the unforced flow of thick and even lines which
contain rich coloristic values of their own. The brittle contour line of 1910 has been domesticated
and mellowed. Schiele's 1916 study of his father-in-law, Herr Harms, displays the same re-humanized
treatment applied to a male subject. The contorted gestures and grimaces of 1910 have been
abandoned for a new naturalism: the aggressive penetration into the psyche of the earlier period
has been exchanged for a serene depiction with emphasis on character. The man. not his temporary
emotions, is now expressed.
Three self portraits, dating from 1916, 1917, and 1918, all studies for the monumental
painting The Family, reveal the final phases through which Schiele's draftsmanship was to pass.
The first. Self Portrait Squatting I, shows Sehiele nude, squatting on the floor, his legs spread wide
apart, and fully facing his mirror. The power of his 1910 line now permeates the entire body with
equal emphasis. All parts partake of the expressiveness of line, from the knobby knee to the
humping neck as it merges into the shoulder. But the line is no longer limited to outer contour:
horizontals, arcs and delicate grids spread across all surface areas of the body in anatomical
reflection and modeling. Schiele's linear conception is now complemented by a conscious use of
painterly qualities. This new direction is to become the dominating characteristic of Schiele's
last works. The Self Portrait Squatting II, while still conveying the individual aspects of features
such as the shoulders and knee, introduces a body silhouette dominated by a sweeping contour
which imparts equal emphasis to all areas. Line serves still a new function. It is used for formal
definition rather than expressive content. This is not a drawing of what an individual feels, but
of how a figure appears in a certain pose. Sehiele does not react to his subject but records it. The
need to express, so compelling in 1910, has shifted to the how of expression. The painterly approach
begun in Self Portrait Squatting I is intensified. The plastic volumes of the body are indicated by
colored dabs of green, red and yellow that fleck the skin. Hair on the legs and arms is not indicated
by the individual decorative lines of the abstract style of 1914, but by thick strokes of the crayon
backed by a blur of color. Even the hair of the head, usually depicted by vigorous strokes of the
brush, partakes of the new modeling treatment: colors are put to work against each other rather
than simply applied at the same time, thus brown and blue-black indicate dips and risings rather
than merely texture. The last study for The Family, Self Portrait Squatting III marks the ultimate
stage of Schiele's draftsmanship. The point of the crayon has been used to render the body silhouette
in far more general and simplified terms than the 1917 study: then the crayon has been turned
lengthwise and applied with varying pressures to numerous small areas in tonal strokes. Line has
been released from its former graphic function and allowed to operate as a coloring agent.
This final shift toward a painterly approach in which line functions both to define and
to color coincides with Schiele's increasingly profound interpretations as a portrait painter. The
monumental simplicity of the 1918 Mother and Child, and the reduction to expressive essentials
in the 1918 Hand Study for Hugo Roller are cogent testimonials to the basic and determining role
20
DR1WIMS U THE EXHIBITION
10. SELF PORTRAIT SCREAMING. 1910. Gouache, charcoal, 17^x12^" (44x31 cm.).
11. FRANZ WEIGANG. c. 1910. Watercolor. pencil, 17^x124/' (43.8 x 31.1 cm.).
12. MALE NUDE FROM THE BACK. 1911. Watercolor, pencil. 19x124" (48.2 x 32.2 cm.).
13. GIRL IN BLACK STOCKINGS. 1911. Gouache, pencil, 21 + X14V" (54.5 X 37 cm.).
14. PORTRAIT OF GERTA SCHIELE. 1911. Pencil, 19x12-}" (48.1 x 31.7 cm.).
15. SELF PORTRAIT. 1911. Pencil, ink, watercolor, 21Jxl44/' (55.2 x 36.4 cm.).
16. SUN FLOWERS. 1911. Pencil, watercolor, 17x11-}" (43 x 29.3 en..).
18. WOMAN WITH BLACK APRON. 1911. Watercolor, L9x 12f" (48.2 x 32 cm.).
20. -'HINDERING THE ARTIST IS A CRIME, IT IS MURDERING LIFE IN THE BUD". 1912.
21. "THE SINGLE ORANGE WAS THE ONLY LIGHT". 1912. Pencil, watercolor. 114xm"
(28.5 x 44.5 cm.).
22. "THE DOOR INTO THE OPEN". 1912. Pencil, watercolor, 19x12V" (48.2 x 31.7 cm.).
23. TRIESTE FISHING BOAT. 1912. Pencil, watercolor, 124x19" (31.7 x 48.2 cm.).
24. "FOR MY ART AND FOR MY LOVED ONES I WILL GLADLY ENDURE TO THE END". 1912.
26. "TWO OF MY HANDKERCHIEFS". 1912. Pencil, watercolor, 19x121" (48.2 x 31.7 cm.).
29. SELF PORTRAIT. 1913. Watercolor, I8f X 12+" (47.6 X 31.7 cm.).
30. PORTRAIT OF FRITZ IIAl ER. 1914. Pencil, 17{xl2" (43.8x30.5 cm.).
31. RECLINING WOMAN WITH GREEN HAT. 1914. Pencil, watercolor, 12|x 19J/' (32.5x 49 cm.).
32. SEATED WOMAN WITH ORANGE CLOTH. 1914. Gouache, pencil, 18fxl2-L" (47.2 x 31.2 cm.).
33. PORTRAIT OE AN OLD MAN. 1915. Oil on paper, 184X12J;" (47x31 cm.).
34. PORTRAIT OF JOHN HARMS. FATHER-IN-LAW OF THE ARTIST. 1916. Pencil. 19x124" (48. 3x 31.7 cm.).
35. SELF PORTRAIT. 1916. Pencil, watercolor. llfxlB" (29.7 X 45.8 cm.).
3d. EDITH, WIFE OF THE ARTIST. 1917. Pencil, watercolor, 18xllf (45.8 x 29.7 cm.).
37. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST'S SISTER-IN-LAW. 1917. Watercolor. 17x11" (43x28 cm.).
38. SELF PORTRAIT. 1917. Pencil, watercolor. 18x114" (45.8 X 29.1 cm.).
40. PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE EDITH, c. 1917. Pencil. 194x124/' (49.5 x 31.2 cm.).
44. PORTRAIT OF THE AUTHOR RORERT MULLER. 1918. Crayon. 184x12" (47.2 x 30.1 cm.).
47. SEATED MALE NUDE, FROM THE BACK. Watercolor, 17^x121" (45x32 cm.).
Collection Dr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Eckhardt, VV innipeg.
13 19
116
23
22 33
38
40 44
118
Only books, periodicals and exhibitions which refer to specific kunstsalon pisco, Vienna, 1909, Xeukunstgruppe Wien.
paintings in this exhibition are listed in the documentation section Xeukunstgruppe Wien. Budapest. 1911.
of the catalogue. hagenbund, Vienna, 1912.
wtener secession, Vienna, 1912 13.
The reference for all the Schiele documentation up to 1930 is kunstsalon golz, Munich. 1913. Kollektivausstellung.
the catalogue raisonne, Egon Schiele, Personlichkeit und Werk, SON'Derbuntj, Cologne, 1913, Internationale Sonderbundausstellung.
Berlin. Leipzig. Vienna. Paul Zsolnay \ erlag. 1930 by Otto Grofie Deutsche Kunstausstellung. Diisseldorf. 1913.
Nirenstein (Kallir). Dr. Kallir is now bringing his catalogue up konigsplatz, Munich, 1914, Secession Wien.
to date and has graciously assisted with additional docu- kunstsalon arnot, Vienna, 1914, Kollektivausstellung.
Schiele room.
WIENER secession, Vienna, 1950, Wiener Secession 1900 1950.
osterreichische galerie, Vienna, 1951 52, Neueruerbungen
neue galerie, Vienna, 1923, Egon Schiele, Gemalde und Hand-
15. 1947-51.
zeichnungen. Catalogue introduction by Kurt Rathe, pp. 7
woman's club, St. Paul. Minnesota. November December, 1953.
hagenbund. Vienna, 1928, Geddchtnisausstellung zum 10. Todes-
tag.
walker art center, Minneapolis, February 1 March 11, 1955,
Expressionism 1900 1955. Catalogue introduction by Sidney
galerie ST. etienne, New York, November 1941.
Simon.
xxiv. internazionale biennale di venezia, Venice, 1948.
May stedelijk museum, Amsterdam, December 1956; van abbe
galerie st. etienne, New York, April 5 1, 1948, Egon
museum, Eindhoven, January' 1957. Kunst uit Oostenrijk.
Schiele. Catalogue introduction by Joseph von Sternberg.
Catalogue introduction by erner Hofmann, n. p.
NEUE galerie, Vienna, October November. 1948, Egon Schiele,
\^
PERIODICAL*
haus DER KUNST, Munich, March 14 May 10, 1964, Secession r[oessler]. a[rthur]. "Egon Schiele", Bildende Kiinstler,
Europdische Kunst urn die Jahrhundertwende. Catalogue intro- Monatsschrift fur Kiinstler und Kunstfreunde, herausgegeben
duction by Siegfried Wichmann, pp. 1 19. von Arthur Roessler, Vienna and Leipzig, vol. 3, 1911,
Wien um 1900, Vienna, June 5 August 30, 1964, Exhibition of p. 104 ff.
painting, sculpture, graphics, organized by the city of GERSTENBERG, KURT. "Die Kiinstler und Diese Zeit", Deutsche
Vienna; paintings shown at the secession. Kunst und Dekoration, Darmstadt, vol. XLI, October 1917
GALERIE ST. etienne, New York, October 17 November 14, March 1918, pp. 113-116.
1964, Twenty-fifth Anniversary Exhibition. Wendingen, special volume "Osterreichische Kunst", Amsterdam,
THE BALTIMORE museum OF art, Baltimore, October 6 Novem- 1927.
ber 15, 1964, 1914, An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Mededeelingen II van den Dienst voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen
Sculpture. Catalogue introduction by George Boas, Henri der Gemeente 's Gravenhage, no. 4, April 1928, pp. 127 128.
Peyre, Lincoln F. Johnson, Jr., Gertrude Rosenthal, pp. "Schiele" (Review of exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne), Art News,
11-30. New York, vol. XI, no. 16, December 1 14, 1941, p. 33.
"Egon Schiele" (Review of exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne),
Art News, New York, vol. XLVII, no. 2, April 1948, p. 51.
ankwicz von kleehoven, hans. "Egon Schiele", Das Kunstwerk,
Baden-Baden, no. 3, 1951, pp. 22-29.
davis, RICHARD s. "The Institute Receives Gifts of Two Expressio-
nist Paintings", The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin,
XLIV, Minneapolis, vol. 33, no. September 1955.
9,
baum, 1915. New York, vol. 35, no. 1, October 1960, pp. 46 51.
roessler, Arthur. Kritische Fragmente, Aufsdtze iiber Osterreichi- "Egon Schiele" (Review of exhibition at Galerie St. Etienne),
sche Neukiinstler, Vienna, Richard Lanyi, 1918. Art News, New York, vol. 59, no. 7, November 1960, p. 12.
karpfen, FRITZ. Dos Egon-Schiele-Buch, Vienna, Wiener Graphi- "The Putnam Dana McMillan Collection", The Minneapolis
sche Werkstatte, 1921. Institute of Arts Bulletin, Minneapolis, vol. 50, no. 4, December
karpfen, fritz. Gegenwartskunst; vol. 3, Osterreichische Kunst, 1961, pp. 24-25.
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THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM
STAFF
Klimt drawings nos. 2. 14, 20: Schiele drawings nos. 10, 13,40
Galerie St. Etienne, New York: Klimt, nos. 2, 3, 13, 22, 24;
Schiele nos. 1, 10, 12, 21, 25, 33, 40
Marlborough Fine Art Ltd., London: Schiele nos. 3, 26, 28, 30, 34
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York: Schiele, no. 19
The following color plates were lent by: Mr. and Mrs. Frederick M. Mayer, New York: Schiele, no. 37
Mrs. Ala Story, Santa Rarbara, California: Schiele. no. 43
Galerie St. Etienne, New York: Klimt, no. 3; Schiele, no. 32
in February 1965