Reclining Female Nude (White Nude), 1919

Herbert Boeckl (1894–1966) is known as a colorist and “full-blooded painter,” but he was also self-taught. From 1912 to 1914, he studied architecture at the University of Technology in Vienna and as a private student of Adolf Loos (1870–1933); during the same period he turned his attention to painting and first exhibited in 1913. After the end of the World War I, Bruno Grimschitz (1892–1964), who later became director of the Belvedere, introduced the young artist to the prominent art dealer Gustav Nebehay (1881–1935). Now financially secure, Boeckl was able to open a studio in Klagenfurt and marry Maria Plahna in July 1919. She was also presumably the model for the Reclining Female Nude. By late 1918, the Carinthian painter had developed a characteristic style with a black outline and colorful flecks of paint on a white background. Boeckl worked at the edge of non-representational art without ever transgressing it.

AM, 2019