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ONLINECOLLECTION

Reapers and Approaching Storm, 1922

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on canvas
84×138.4 cm

Artists

  • Albin Egger-Lienz

    (Stribach 1868–1926 St. Justina)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
In 1907 when Albin Egger-Lienz (1868–1926) came to Längenfeld in the Tyrolean Oetztal to work on Danse Macabre, he enthusiastically reported in a letter to his wife about the “earthy folk” who populated his neighborhood. He had then created his first version of Reaper – an iteration of his subject, which illustrated a sunny day in the mountains. In his tireless search for the ideal interpretation, Egger-Lienz cycled through many stylistic considerations and experimented with several variations on the subject over the years that ensued. This version from 1922 counts as one of the most expressive. Neither details nor individual traits can be discerned of the nearly monochrome composition that is made up of only a few energetically spackled fields of color. What appeared in light paintings around 1907 as mere illustration or snapshot, was here raised to a vision of universal validity: The hard manual labor in an apocalyptic “nowhere” symbolizes, as it were, human existence in space and time.

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Object data

Artist/author
  • Albin Egger-Lienz
Title
Reapers and Approaching Storm
Date
1922
Art movement
Expressionism, Naturalism I Realism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
84×138.4 cm
Signature
Signed lower right: Egger Lienz
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 532
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
  • Albin Egger-Lienz: 1868-1926, hrsg. von Gert Ammann/Michael Fuhr, Wien 2008 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 15.02.2008–29.05.2008).
  • Wilfried Kirschl: Albin Egger-Lienz: 1868-1926; das Gesamtwerk; [Monographie in zwei Bänden], Wien 1996.
Catalogue raisonne
  • Kirschl 1996: M 453
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Josef Schifferegger, Innsbruck (vor 1926);
Hans Schifferegger, Innsbruck (bis 1985); (1)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1985-1994);
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994).

  1. Wilfried Kirschl, Albin Egger-Lienz: 1868-1926. Das Gesamtwerk, Wien 1977, S. 556, M 453; kristallwelten.swarowsky.com, Einst Gasthaus, heute Kristallhaus: https://kristallwelten.swarovski.com/Content.Node/blog/11_SWI_Goldene_Rose.de.html
    (Abfrage 08.10.2021)

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