Portrait of a Patient (Bruno Granichstaedten), 26.4.1915

On 26th April 1915, Erwin Osen (1891–1970) created a likeness of the operetta composer Bruno Granichstaedten (1879–1944) at Vienna’s 2nd Garrison Hospital, and the depicted confidently signed the work. Shortly after the premiere of his first major stage success on 20th March 1915 at the Theater an der Wien, Granichstaedten was admitted to hospital with the diagnosis of a “moderately severe neurasthenia” on the very day that Osen was discharged from the same hospital, where he had been treated for “chronic neurasthenia”. In the admission form, the attending physician Stefan Jellinek (1871–1968), whose estate comprised this drawing as well as Studies of Patients and other works, described symptoms of “severe nervousness”, convulsions, visual snow, frequent headaches and dizziness. The notes further include references to Granichstaedten’s “hypalgesia” – his reduced sensitivity to pain in the right side of his body – which was possibly tested and treated with electroshock therapy. On 3rd May 1915, Granichstaedten was discharged and deemed “fit for service”.

VG, 2021