The Secession, Leopold Museum and reconnecting with an old friend

Wednesday June 12 was a beautiful day in Vienna.  We dashed over early to the Naschmarkt across the street to get some lamb chops, cheese and vegetables.  We then headed out to visit the Secession building and see the wonderful Beethoven Friese painted by Gustav Klimt in 1902.  The piece was part of a group show dedicated to Beethoven, and it originally hung in the main gallery until 1903.  It was then cut into eight sections by its purchaser, art collector Carl Reininghaus. In 1915, it was purchased by the industrialist August Lederer.  In 1938, the Nazis seized the piece.  It was purchased by Austria in 1973 from Lederer's heirs and restored over a ten-year period.  In 1986, it returned to the Secession, where it hangs in a specially designed room in the basement level.

One of my favourite buildings-  home of the Viennese Secession 

The frieze takes its theme from Richard Wagner's interpretation of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and depicts humankind's search for happiness.

Part of the frieze

With the monster

We then went over to the Leopold Museum, but before we went in, we had lunch at an outdoor cafe.  The Leopold is one of a number of museums and restaurants that make up the Museum Quartier.  There is a great support for culture and museums in Vienna.

Alain waiting for his lunch

The Leopold Museum has the world's largest collection of Egon Shiele's paintings.  Rudolf Leopold (1925-2010), a Viennese ophthalmologist, started to collect Shiele's paintings in the 1950s, when they were selling for a song.  He also collected Gustav Klimt and Oscar Kokoschka.   In 1994, Austria purchased his collection of approximately 5000 works for a third of the appraised value of $500 million and build the museum which opened in 2001.  Leopold was also made a Director for life.  There has been an ongoing controversy involving Leopold's purchase of art stolen by the Nazis.

Poster on museum outside wall

The Shiele paintings were wonderful.  He only lived until he was 28, when he died of the Spanish Flu, but his style was very unique.

House with Shingle Roof (Old House II)

Levitation (The Blind II) 1915

We saw at least four pictures that had a detailed description of a past Jewish owner, who had the particular picture confiscated by the Nazis and which later ended up in the Leopold collection.  There was a very strangely worded disclaimer with each piece, claiming that even while the work is "doubtlessly the property of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation" it was of vital importance to the Museum to come to a mutual agreement and reach a fair and just solution with the heir of the original Jewish owner.  The following is an example of one such disclaimer.  

Last year Alain and I saw a documentary directed by Andrew Shea called "Portrait of Wally" which outlined the history of Shiele's 1915 portrait of his mistress, Wally Neuzil.  The picture belonged to Lea Bondi Jaray, a Viennese art collector who had to flee Austria in the late 1930s, as she was Jewish.  The picture was bought by Leopold in 1954.  When the painting was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in 1997, an article came out outlining its history and the heirs of Ms. Jaray brought a suit claiming that the Leopold Museum knew that the painting had been taken from Ms. Jaray by a Nazi sympathizer.  The suit eventually settled in 2010, when the heirs received $19 million dollars.

Portrait of Wally-- one of his most beautiful works

One quite provocative Shiele piece was the 1912 Cardinal and Nun (Caress).  It also referenced Klimt's picture "the Kiss".

Cardinal and Nun (the Caress)

The Leopold also contained a number of works by Gustav Klimt.

Death and Life 110/11 reworked in 1915, Gustave Klimt

View from the Gallery

After our visit to the Leopold Museum we met an old high school friend of mine, Ariella, and her husband, Tony for a coffee at another outdoor cafe in the Museum Quartier.  Ariella has lived in Vienna since her early 20s and the last time I saw her was in Vienna in 1995.

Toby, Ariella and Tony

We had a great visit for a few hours and then Alain and I decided to walk through the Museum Quartier and go further into town.  We passed many, many beautiful buildings and a gay pride celebration.

Kunsthistorisches Museum

Gay Pride celebration

The Spires of Vienna

Demel's Icecream

Franz Schubert lived here!

Raiffeisenbank

Detail on a building

Walking by the Cafe Mozart, we saw a reference to Harry Lime from "The Third Man".

Cafe Mozart 

Sachertorte- wow 

We ended the day by picking up two small pieces of Sachertorte from the Cafe Sacher for dessert.

Dinner back at the apartment was lamb chops, fresh beans, salad prepared by Alain while I worked on the blog.  We also had some Austrian red wine.  We've been monitoring the situation in Istanbul, which continues to look very grim.  On the way back to the apartment, we passed a small group of people with Turkish flags marching in support of the Gezi Park protesters. 

It was a very full first day in Vienna.