Giovanni Battista Moroni: Portrait of the nobleman Prospero Alessandri (ca. 1560)

Vienna is, as you know, always worth a visit! The Albertina is currently showing more than one hundred outstanding paintings and sculptures from the exquisite collections of the Princely House of Liechtenstein (until June 10) – magnificent Old Masters, from Rubens to Makart. A good reason to visit the Danube metropolis. For a first impression (and for those of you who won’t make it to Vienna) I share my favorite selection of the most beautiful exhibits.

Antico: Bust of Marcus Aurelius (ca. 1500)

The House of Liechtenstein’s magnificent art collections rank among the most important and largest private collections in the world, comparable only to those of the British royal family. They comprise imposing sculptures and paintings of the Renaissance and the Baroque by Adriaen de Vries, Peter Paul Rubens und Anthonis van Dyck, superb works by the Italian and French artists Giambologna aka Giovanni da Bolgna, Canaletto and Hyacinthe Rigaud, masterpieces of the Viennese Biedermeier by Friedrich von Amerling and Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, as well as exquisite paintings of the Makart era.

Hans Makart: The Death of Cleopatra (1875)

The House of Liechtenstein, originally an Austrian noble dynasty, had held vast possessions in Lower Austria and Moravia since the Middle Ages. In 1599, Karl I von Liechtenstein converted from the Protestant faith to the Catholicism. In 1608 he received the title of bereditary prince and thus laid the foundation for the rise of the House of Liechtenstein. In the early eighteenth century the princely family’s diverse castles and palaces were transferred to the City Palace in Vienna.

Salviati: Portrait of a Man (ca. 1543-48)

Three hundred years ago, in 1719, Emperor Charles VI elevated the neighboring estates of Vaduz and Schellenberg to the status of Imperial Principality: Liechtenstein became a sovereign state within the Holy Roman Empire. From 1807 onward, Johann I von Liechtenstein had the extensive picture gallery transferred from the Viennese City Palace to the Summer Palace outside the town walls. In 1810, five years after Duke Albert, the Albertina’s founder, the House of Liechtenstein likewise made its collections accessible to the public.

Lucas van Valckenborch The Elder: The Parable of the Blind leading the Blind (after 1568)

A year earlier Prince Johann I von Liechtenstein had fought side by side with Generalissimo Archduke Carl in the Battle of Aspern (1809). He had this first victory over Napoleon’s troops, captured in a monumental painting by Johann Peter Krafft (now on view in the Albertina’s staterooms as a permanent loan from the Princely Collections).

Quentin Massys The Elder: The Tax Collectors (ca. 1525-30)

In the nineteenth century, Prince Alois II and his son, Johann II, became the most prominent patrons and collectors of Viennese Biedermeier art. Hundreds of Paintings by Waldmüller, Fendi, Amerling and Rudolf von Alt in today’s Viennese Collections go back to Johann II’s donations. The House of Liechtenstein’s collections survived the First World War and the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy unscathed.

Osias Beert The Elder: Large Still Life with Apples, Grapes and a Vase of Flowers (ca. 1600-20)

In the final weeks of the Second World War, they were relocated from Vienna to the neutral Principality of Liechtenstein for reasons of safety. In days of economic hardship and dispossessions following Europe’s division into East and West, many paintings were sold, including key works by Leonardo, Canaletto and Rubens. Only under Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein has the family’s art collection began to grow again substantially. Exhibiting the most beautiful and important masterpieces from the Princely Collections, the Albertina is celebrating the Principality’s 300^th anniversary in the palace of Duke Albert and Archduke Carl, both of whom once maintained such close relations with the House of Liechtenstein.

Source: Albertina Wien

Me infront of Ruben’s Portrait of his daughter Clara Serena (ca. 1616)

…come a bit closer…

Franz Jansz. van der Uyl: Breakfast Still Life with a Pewter Flagon (1635) – Fascinating details such as the silver bowl and the light reflections on the pot as to be seen here

Jan van Huysum: Flowers in a Terracotta Vase (ca. 1725) …note the three-dimensional depiction of the putti on the vase!

Peter Paul Rubens: Venus infront of the Mirror (ca. 1614/15) …and here the bangle of Venus as well as the mirror perspective!

Anthonis van Dyck: Portrait of a Woman (1618) …impressive filigree of lace and jewelry …

Anthonis von Dyck: Saint Jerome (ca. 1615/16)

Roelant Savery: A Bouquet of Flowers (1612)

Guiseppe Arcimboldo: Terra (Earth) ca. 1570

One of my favourite paintings of this exposition: “Landscape with the Young Tobias” by Jan Brueghel The Elder (1598). Even in the depth of the picture you will discover the finest detail depictions

Adriaen de Vries: Saint Sebastian (ca. 1613/14)

Peter Paul Rubens: Jan Vermoelen (1616)

Anthonis van Dyck: Maria de Tassis (ca. 1629/30)

Five centuries of art history

Gerrit Adriansz. Berckheyde: The Market Square in Haarlem (1661)

Frans Snyders: The Lioness (ca. 1620/30)

View into the exhibition rooms of the Albertina, in the back “The Battle between the Romans and Sabines” by Sebastiano Ricci (ca. 1700)

Domenico Guidi: Bust of Maria Annunciata (ca. 1670)

Franz Eybl: The Strawberry Seller of Hallstatt (1844)

Friedrich Wilhelm Schadow: Felix Schadow (ca. 1830)

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller: Roses (1843)

Franz Anton Zauner: Seated Figure of Clio (1779) – in the background paintings of Batoni

Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller: Flowers in a Porcelain Vase with a Candlestick and Silver Vessels (1839)

Friedrich von Amerling: Princess Maria Franziska von Liechtenstein (1836)

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The Kreuzberg near Krumau, 1910

During my last visit to Vienna, I went to the current special exhibition by the painter Egon Schiele. The Vienna Albertina has one of the largest collections of Schiele. At the beginning of the 2018 commemorative year, which marks the 100th anniversary of Schiele’s death, the Albertina now presents a comprehensive exhibition from its collection of Egon Schiele’s work. It presents 180 of his most beautiful gouaches and drawings, dealing with themes such as the existential loneliness of man in drastic contrast to the values ​​of the society of Fin de Siècle.

Self-Portrait with Peacock-Waistcoat, 1911

In addition to his memories of the time in the Austrian town of Krumau and various self-portraits, the Schiele exhibition contains numerous representations of children and acts of young girls. The children came from the street, from the working class milieu and Schiele staged them in his pictures as “aesthetic material”, not as an idealized form of eroticism. Although surprisingly many artists of his time – including the painters Oskar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt – paid homage to the ideal of the child. In my opinion, this kind of representation has something disturbing and abnormal.

Seated Nude Girl, 1911

At the same time Schiele’s drawings reveal the suffering and the adverse living conditions of the poor population in the nineteenth century. His pictures are not pleasing, but go away from the aesthetics of the beautiful to the ugly. While Schiele is regarded as part of the artistic and intellectual elite of the turn of the century, the staging of the exhibition in the Albertina follows a different principle: large, floating pictures confront the artist’s radical work with the reality of his environment. They form the real background, which illustrates the discrepancy between Schiele’s work and the surrounding society. And that is equally impressive and shocking. BvH

About Egon Schiele:

Egon Schiele was born in 1890 in Tulln, Lower Austria. Early on, his painterly talent became apparent, and he was admitted to the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1906, with just 16 years. After two years, Schiele left the academy – disappointed with the rigid Academy Day – and founded the Viennese Neukunstgruppe with some fellow students. In 1911 he moved from Vienna to Krumau, together with his most famous model, the then 17-year-old Wally Neuzil. An artistically productive period began. The old town of Krumau became Schiel’s favorite motif. His lifestyle, however, was regarded as offensive with Wally because of the “wild marriage”. The visits of children to Schiele’s studio brought him to trial for alleged abuse for 24 days.

In 1912 he returned to Vienna. Thanks to his patron and paternal friend, the painter Gustav Klimt, he was able to re-establish himself quickly in Vienna and again enjoyed great success in the Austrian art scene. In 1915 Schiele married his longtime friend Edith Harms. Edith demanded from Schiele the break with Wally Neuzil, which he did, with heavy heart. In 1918 Egon Schiele was dedicated to the 49th exhibition of the Vienna Secession, where he exhibited 19 large paintings and 29 drawings. Toward the end of the First World War the Austrian capital was overrun by the Spanish flu. Edith Schiele, who was pregnant in the sixth month, succumbed to this illness in the autumn of 1918. Schiele had stuck up and died only three days later with only 28 years.

Sunflowers, 1911

Standing Girl, 1910

Blond Nude Model on Brown Cloth, 1912

Triestinian Fishing Boat, 1912

Old Houses in Krumau, 1914

Old Gabled Houses in Krumau, 1917

Edith Schiele, 1915 …

… and her Sister Adele Harms

Female Nude

Reclining Female Nude with Legs Spread Apart, 1914

Three Girls, 1911

Poster of the 49th Exhibition of the Secession, 1918

Anton Josef Trcka: Egon Schiele posing, 1914

Egon Schiele in the Albertina

“Between Modernity and Tradition”: 22 February to 18 June 2017

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