“Large Kneeling Figure” - Longing, 1922

By 1918, Anton Kolig (1886–1950) had made his way into Egon Schiele’s (1980–1918) inner circle and became a member of the Neukunstgruppe. Throughout the 1920s, he focused on portraits and allegorical subjects. In his most favored motif of the male nude, he chose a more antiquated, idealized aesthetic, tending to present the sitter as a youthful hero positioned as either relaxed and contemplative or in allegorically significant stances which emphasized athletic proportions, such as in the painting Large Kneeler. Kolig, like a virtuoso, understood how to generate the plasticity and volume of a body by way of his generous, spontaneous brushstrokes – a gift for which the artist was praised by his contemporaries. In 1928, Kolig took on a distinguished post as professor of painting at the Württembergische Art Academy in Stuttgart, a position he held until 1943.

Text Leopold Museum