The Leopold

Monday, August 23

The Leopold--what in incredible collection.  It was built as the private collection of Dr. Rudolph Leopold and his wife Elisabeth.  The story is that he inherited a valuable stamp collection, sold it, and began his art collection.  He favored the works of Egon Schiele, despite that they were not popular at the time.  Because of their lack of popularity, they much less expensive than they are now.  This enabled Leopold to purchase a large collection of his favorite artist sometimes for mere dollars.  He first kept the collection in his home but later arranged to sell a large portion of it to the state.  In return, Austria built the museum to house the collection and Leopold was appointed director for the remainder of his life.  

Our tour was guided by Dr. O and she led us through the Jugenstil works of Klimt and Schiele.  Some of my favorite works of Klimt were his early landscapes.  His style was very unique as he was one of the few artists to paint on a square canvas.  Also in the Leopold, were Klimt’s works of medicine, jurisprudence, and law.  Unfortunately the originals do not exist as they were destroyed in WWII.  Instead we examined reproductions from photographs.  These were landmark works as they were refused by the University of Vienna because they did not conform to the preconceived standards the university expected.  Next we viewed the works of Oskar Kokoschka.  This was very special for our group as Dr. O studied with him when she first came to Vienna. 

My favorite exhibit in the Leopold was the furniture.  Leopold was not only interested in paintings but also in furniture as art.  His collection of furniture focused on that of the Jugenstil as did his other collections.  He mostly collected furniture that was crafted in the Vienna workshop.  Here, artists hand created furniture as works of art.  These were not factory made and not mass produced.  The workshop turned away from this type of production.