Rudolf Leopold: Egon Schiele. paintings – watercolors – drawings

New edition of monumental monograph presented at the Leopold Museum

Elisabeth Leopold presented the new edition of Rudolf Leopold’s #egonschiele monograph at the #leopoldmuseum. “The opus #egonschiele. Paintings – Watercolors – Drawings first published in 1972 provided a central cornerstone for the exceptional artist Egon Schiele’s world renown,” #elisabethleopold emphasized at the book launch. The impressive work, weighing several kilos, is available as of now in a revised edition.

Elisabeth Leopold presented the new edition of Rudolf Leopold’s #egonschiele monograph at the #leopoldmuseum. “The opus #egonschiele. Paintings – Watercolors – Drawings first published in 1972 provided a central cornerstone for the exceptional artist Egon Schiele’s world renown,” #elisabethleopold emphasized at the book launch. The impressive work, weighing several kilos, is available as of now in a revised edition.

The first edition of Rudolf Leopold’s monograph #egonschiele. Paintings – Watercolors – Drawings went out of print shortly after its release in 1972 and for years could only be bought second-hand at high prices. #elisabethleopold made it her mission to reissue the publication reflecting the life’s work of her husband, who passed away in 2010. The couple lived together for around 60 years and compiled the world’s most extensive and important collection of works by #egonschiele. In 1994 they founded the #leopoldmuseum Private Foundation together with the Republic of Austria and with the support of the Austrian National Bank. Built by the State, the #leopoldmuseum opened to the public in 2001 and will celebrate its 20-year-anniversary in the upcoming year.

The present publication completes what Prof. #rudolfleopold (1925 – 2010) had begun himself but never finished – an updated new edition. Following the publication of the first edition, the author and collector kept revising his text, and his handwritten annotations have been incorporated into the reissued version.

The volume’s original graphic design, created by the eminent Austrian artist Walter Pichler (1936– 2012), was adopted for the new edition almost unchanged. Wherever possible, sources for Rudolf Leopold’s text and the whereabouts of the works have been added in the book’s illustration section. The pictorial material has been updated, color-matched several times and printed in the highest quality.

The catalogue raisonné of Schiele’s paintings now consistently features illustrations, allowing readers to visually experience the chronology of the artist’s oeuvre compiled by #rudolfleopold. All provenance data has been brought up to date according to latest research, with recourse to the work of Schiele expert Jane Kallir.

Rudolf Leopold’s monograph has lost none of its relevance since its first publication 48 years ago. His intellectual and empathetic understanding of Schiele’s work, coupled with his analysis of the stylistic evolution of individual periods of the artist’s oeuvre, is to this day considered a milestone in Schiele research. In the early 1970s, Egon Schiele’s work was yet to experience the international renown it enjoys today, and in Austria, too, he was appreciated mostly for his late oeuvre. It is thanks to #rudolfleopold that Schiele’s explosive expressionism characteristic of the period from 1910 to 1914 was reappraised and acknowledged for its ground-breaking impact.

By the time the book was first published, #rudolfleopold already had 20 years of experience as a collector and researcher. He met many #people who had been personally acquainted with Schiele and was thus able to compile valuable accounts by contemporary witnesses. An important part of his research involved traveling to the sites where Schiele had created his paintings. The results of this longstanding research are reflected in an impressive motif reference. This reference was a sensation at the time, and still represents an important part of the publication
and an essential element of Schiele research.

The book
Rudolf Leopold (1925 – 2010) recognized Egon Schiele’s preeminent significance for 20th-century art history in the 1950s. He was decisively responsible for the artist being accorded his due place in art history and public perception. The 1972 monograph presented Schiele’s paintings, watercolors and drawings in a chronological context and, referencing his motifs as well as studies, sketches and documents, afforded a comprehensive overview of the artist’s oeuvre. The current edition, which features a revised catalogue raisonné, pays homage to Rudolf Leopold’s life-time achievement and was edited by his wife #elisabethleopold, who in a few months will celebrate her 95th birthday.

The author
When the young medical student #rudolfleopold, carried away by the visionary power of great artworks, decided to surround his life with art, he discovered the works of the then little-known
artist #egonschiele. This opened up a new chapter in art history. The young collector embarked on a meticulous quest, carefully selecting especially the exceptionally exciting main works of Schiele’s early period for his collection. Over the course of 40 years, this compilation would grow to reflect “Schiele and his time”, or “Vienna 1900”. Within this setting, Schiele’s works make up the core and sublimely thrilling aspect of the Leopold Collection. In this book they are presented in their entirety.

Egon Schiele. Paintings – Watercolors – Drawings
Published with Hirmer Verlag, Munich
Author: #rudolfleopold | revised second edition, ed. by #elisabethleopold, with the collaboration of
Stefan Kutzenberger, Sonja Niederacher and Michael Wladika
Cloth-bound with book jacket and ribbon, dimensions: 30 × 30 cm
736 pages, 931 illustrations
ISBN 978-3-7774-3472-8 (German edition)
ISBN 978-3-7774-3469-8 (English edition)
Available at the #leopoldmuseum Shop and specialist bookshops
Subscription rate for orders until 31st March 2021: 77.10 Euros (German edition only)
Retail price from 1st April 2021: 100.80 Euros (German and English edition)