Albin Egger-Lienz

Otto Kunz, Vienna
Elisabeth Hoyer, Vienna
Acquired by the present owner in the 1970s

Wilfried Kirschl, Albin Egger-Lienz, Vienna, 1977, vol. I, p. 193 illustrated in a photo of the artist's studio; pp. 206-07 discussed; vol.II, p. 540, no. M318, catalogued & illustrated

The canvas is raising slightly from the card on which it is mounted in places, but there is no retouching visible under ultraviolet light, and apart from some minor surface dirt, this work is in overall good original condition. Held in a simple, narrow, gold-painted moulded plaster and wood frame.
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Egger Lienz's friendship with the philosopher and journalist Otto Kunz was galvanized in 1912 during that year's exhibition of Monumental-Dekorative Malerei (Monumental Painting) in Dresden.  Forty artists were shown, including Ferdinand Hodler, Gustav Klimt, Lovis Corinth, Franz von Stuck, Ludwig von Hofmann, and Max Klinger. Egger himself was represented by twelve works (fig. 1).

Disappointed by the critical press coverage he received, which described him as a pale imitator of Hodler, Egger invited Otto Kunz to make his case and to set the record straight. Kunz immediately set to work on an article, entitled 'Monumentale Kunst', to appear in Vienna's Sonn- u. Montag-Zeitung in Egger's name. As much a polemic aimed at his fellow-exhibitors as a defence of his own work, the article caused a huge stir when it appeared on 8 July 1912, to the extent that Kunz felt compelled to publish an extended version to counter the many reactions it elicited in the press.

The present work was painted on 23 June 1912, just after the manuscript for the article had been sent off to Vienna, perhaps in thanks for Kunz's support. Certainly, the article went on to generate tremendous profile for Egger, who wrote to Kunz on 19th July, 'this article has made me more famous than had I painted ten big, good, new pictures...' (quoted in Kirschl, p. 207).

 

Fig. 1: The artist in his studio in Weimar, with the present work visible at the top of the steps