Oskar Kokoschka

Neue Galerie (Otto Nirenstein), Vienna
Wolgang Gurlitt & Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin (on commission from 5th January - 28th September 1927)
Fritz & Annie Wolff-Kniže, Vienna (acquired before 1936)
Peter A. Knize, New York (by descent from the above)
Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York

Munich, Galerie Hans Goltz, Kokoschka, 1924
Vienna, Neue Galerie, Oskar Kokoschka, 1924
Dresden, Galerie Ernst Arnold, Oskar Kokoschka. Gemälde, Handzeichnungen, Aquarelle, Drucke, 1925, no. 37, illustrated in the catalogue
(possibly) Vienna, Neue Galerie, III. Verkaufsausstellung, 1929 Wiesbaden, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Neues Museum, 30 deutsche Künstler aus unserer Zeit, 1930, no. 70, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Biblische Szene)
Vienna, Hagenbund, Moderne österreichischen Malerei, 1931-32, no. 68
Vienna, Secession, Ausstellung von Erwerbungen und Widmungen zu Gunsten der öffentlichen Sammlungen des Vereines der Museumsfreunde in Wien 1912-1936 sowie von Kunstwerken aus Privatbesitz, 1936, no. 184
Boston, Institute of Contemporary Art; Washington, Phillips Memorial Gallery; St. Louis, St. Louis City Art Museum; San Francisco, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum; Wilmington, Delaware Art Center & New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Oskar Kokoschka, 1948, no. 29, illustrated in the catalogue (with incorrect measurements and loaner information)
New York, The Bayer Gallery, Oskar Kokoschka, 1959, no. 10
London, Tate Gallery, Kokoschka, A retrospective exhibition of paintings, drawings, lithographs, stage designs and books, 1962, no. 61
Hamburg, Kunstverein, Oskar Kokoschka, 1962-63, no. 30
New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Artist and Maecenas. A Tribute to Curt Valentin, 1963, no. 244, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, Oskar Kokoschka, 1966, no. 22, illustrated in the catalogue
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980), 1981, no. 15, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Isetan Museum; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art; Nara, Nara Prefectural Museum of Art, Yamanashi, Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art; Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art,  Egon Schiele und Wein zur Jahrhundertwende, 1986, no. 110, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Florence, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Oskar Kokoschka, 1987, no. 7, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten & Liège, Salle Saint-Georges, Oskar Kokoschka, 1987, no. 17, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Barcelona, Museu Picasso, Oskar Kokoschka 1886-1980, 1988, no. 18, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Vienna, Kunstforum Länderbank Wien, Oskar Kokoschka, 1991, no. 39, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Richard Gerstl - Oskar Kokoschka, 1992, no. 56
New York, Neue Galerie, From Klimt to Klee: Masterworks from the Serge Sabarsky Collection, 2009-10, no. 55, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Rom Landau, Der unbestechliche Minos, Hamburg, 1925, illustrated p. 64
Edith Hoffmann, Kokoschka: Life and Work, London, 1947, no. 149 (titled Two Women)
Michelangelo Masciotta, Kokoschka, Florence, 1949, illustrated pl. XXI
Hans M. Wingler, Oskar Kokoschka. The Work of the Painter, Salzburg, 1956, no. 140, illustrated pl. 54
Elfriede Baum, 'Mutter und Kind', in Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie, Vienna, 1971, illustrated fig. 76
Giuseppe Gatt, Oskar Kokoschka, Lucerne, 1972, illustrated fig. 22
Richard Calvocoressi, Kokoschka. Paintings, London, 1992, illustrated in colour fig. 41
Jane Kallir, Richard Gerstl - Oskar Kokoschka. New York, 1992, illustrated in colour fig. 50
Johann Winkler & Katharina Erling, Oskar Kokoschka: Die Gemälde 1906-1929, Salzburg, 1995, no. 154, illustrated in colour p. 92
Oskar Kokoschka: Early Portraits from Vienna and Berlin 1909-1914 (exhibition catalogue), Neue Galerie, New York, 2002, illustrated p. 70

The canvas is lined. There is some craquelure throughout the composition, mostly drying cracks associated with the artist's creative process. Apart from an area of retouching in the upper left corner, an area towards the centre right edge, some lines of retouching in the craquelure in the clouds, on the forehead of the left girl, and some further scattered retouchings, all visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good, stable condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Oskar Kokoschka's Zwei Mädchen is a monumental example of the vibrantly expressive style the artist used during his crucial years in Dresden after the First World War. Following his service as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army and the end of his relationship with Alma Mahler there was a shift in his style. After his move to Dresden Kokoschka expressed his emotive subjects in a dazzlingly rich palette (fig. 1). He painted images of women and children, such as the present work, which are 'double-figure compositions with sensual and violent overtones, suggesting that pathos and brooding introspection were still important elements in Kokoschka's work' (R. Calvocoressi, op. cit., p. 13). In 1921, the year he started the present work, the artist wrote to his parents: 'I am in love with a hundred and one different things, fantasies and people, and finding no fixed point anywhere except in my pictures, at least one of which will, before the year is out, become as joyous and illuminating as almost anything one could imagine, unless one starts to use rockets to paint with' (quoted in Oskar Kokoschka 1889-1980 (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1986, p. 345).

In 1919 Kokoschka was appointed to a professorship at the Dresden Academy, which afforded him the material comforts to devote himself to his art. The renewed vigour with which he approached the paintings of this period is apparent in his expressive handling of colour, which according to Hans M. Wingler was of the greatest importance to the artist: 'All the time Kokoschka was in Dresden he was haunted by the idea of brightening his painting, of cultivating and cherishing the material beauty of the pigment [...]. Around 1922-1923, the practice used almost continually since 1916 of mixing milk of figs with his colours gave to the texture of his pictures the consistency and appearance of a layer of asphalt suddenly solidified in its flow. Whole streams of colour spread over the picture surface, suggesting at times with their brightness an untended garden full of autumn flowers' (op. cit., p. 50).

Kokoschka was undoubtedly aware of the work that had been produced by his German contemporaries, most likely through his pre-war association with Herwarth Walden, whose Der Sturm gallery in Berlin was one of the leading exhibitors of contemporary art. Discussing the impact of the German Expressionist aesthetic upon the artist's work, Richard Calvocoressi writes: 'In terms of colour they relate to German Expressionism, for instance Nolde and some of the artists of the Brücke. The composition is now disposed in irregularly shaped smears and patches of pure unmixed colour - usually green and the primaries, especially red - which are not divided by contour lines but which abut one another directly. The effect is of a dazzling radiance akin to stained glass' (ibid., p. 96).

Zwei Mädchen was formerly owned by the Wolff-Kniže family who had a remarkable collection of Impressionist and Modern art. The family tailoring firm had employed Adolf Loos to design the interior of their shops in Vienna and Paris. Loos also completed the celebrated Steiner House for them in 1909, and it was through Loos that Fritz Wolff-Kniže was introduced to Oskar Kokoschka. They became firm friends and together they travelled to London in 1925 where Fritz 'wanted to open a branch of his exclusive men's tailoring business in London, where members of society were still expected to maintain some style in their dress' (O. Kokoschka, My Life, New York 1974, p. 128). The Wolff-Kniže collection comprised many masterworks by Chagall, Kandinsky and Schiele, as well as 15 oils by Kokoschka and numerous works on paper. Peter A. Knize recalls that 'Kokoschka visited [his] mother's apartment in New York; looking at his paintings with childlike amazement, he concluded that they were among his best works' (P. A. Knize in Oskar Kokoschka: Early Portraits from Vienna and Berlin 1909-1914 (exhibition catalogue), Neue Galerie, New York, 2002, p. 69).



Fig. 1, Oskar Kokoschka, Die Macht der Musik, 1920, oil on canvas, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven