Letter from Egon Schiele to Ulrich Putze, 1912

Transcription:

Dear Mr. P. [Ulrich Putze; the intended recipient is his successor Hans Goltz], I am very fond of you. –
But do not think
that I am from Krummau
or that I am here because of the people of Krummau.
And that I was in some way
connected with the ministry,
that I was represented at international
exhibitions, that I am responsible
for the “Neukunstgruppe”. That one single painting
at the hunting exhibition in the art pavilion
had such an alarming effect; unfortunately.
However, K. [Carl] Reininghaus has my pictures hanging
alongside [Ferdinand] Hodler, [Vincent] van
Gogh, [Paul] Cezanne, [Hans] Makart, [George] Minne,
[Auguste] Rodin, [Gustav] Klimt, [Sandro] Boticelli [!], as do
many other collectors in Vienna, including Otto Wagner,
Klimt, the Wiener Werkstätte (W.W.),
[Fritz] Waerndorfer, [Magda] Mauthner v. Markhof,

Kolo Moser, the School of Arts and Crafts,
Josef Hoffmann; that works of mine are exhibited
at the best modern museum
Folkwang Hagen in Westphalia.
That Klimt traded drawings
with me, then Munich, Berlin,
Prague, I have not been beyond that
and had essentially exhibited
in public 4 times,
most recently at Miethke’s in Vienna
at a collective exhibition, and
it still amounts to nothing. Now
I am 21 years old, I might
even be drafted for military service.
I am sending you a volume of visual
artists, in which you will find
something of mine,
but I also want to let you know
that all of the preceding autobiography
was not written by me. Regards,
Egon Schiele.