Leopold and Marie Czihaczek sitting at the piano, 15th May 1923

The music room of their apartment, whose interior design corresponded to the typical exuberant ornateness of the fin-de-siècle, shows Leopold Czihaczek (1842–1929) playing the piano, with his wife Marie Czihaczek (1853–1937), the sister of Egon Schiele’s father Adolf Schiele (1850–1904), sitting to his left. When he first started studying at the Vienna Academy from 1906, Egon Schiele often stayed at Czihaczek’s apartment. He portrayed his uncle several times, including in a 1907 painting reminiscent of this later photograph Leopold Czihaczek at the Piano. The present photograph was dedicated by the Czihaczeks in commemoration of their golden wedding anniversary to Egon’s mother, Marie Schiele (1862–1935), her daughters Melanie (1886–1974) and Gertrude (1894–1981) as well as the latter’s husband, Egon Schiele’s former colleague, Anton Peschka (1885–1940).

KJ, 2023