Self-Portrait, 1911

With his 1911 Self-Portrait, an icon of early Austrian Expressionism, Max Oppenheimer (1885–1954) presented himself in the tradition of Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) in a front view, with a raised, skeletal hand as a Salvator Mundi. Unlike Dürer in 1500, Oppenheimer showed himself with a slightly averted, skeptical and quizzical gaze. Rather than a confident man, his posture and facial features suggest a suffering artist plagued by doubts.
The painting was obviously very important to Oppenheimer, as he showed it in all the significant exhibitions of his early career: In 1911, it was exhibited at the trendsetting presentation at Heinrich Thannhauser’s (1859–1934) Moderne Galerie in Munich, and the same year at the Kunsthaus Zürich, as well as in 1911/12 at the gallery of Paul Cassirer (1871–1926) in Berlin, and in 1913 during the presentation of the collection of Dr. Oskar Reichel (1869–1943) at the Vienna Galerie Miethke.

Additional Text according to the Agreement of 1st September 2023:
« The “Self-Portrait” by Max Oppenheimer was once owned by the Viennese physician, businessman and art collector Dr. Oskar Reichel (born in 1869, died in 1943). Following the Anschluss, or annexation, of Austria by the German Reich on 13th March 1938, Dr. Reichel was persecuted as a Jew by the Nazi regime and died in Vienna in 1943. To this day, the whereabouts of his art collection are largely unknown. When the painting was offered for sale to the Leopold Museum by a private party in 2023, its acquisition by the museum was predicated on finding a fair and equitable solution in keeping with the provisions of the Washington Declaration. Having reached a settlement with Dr. Oskar Reichel’s legal successor in August 2023, the Leopold Museum acquired the painting to make it accessible to the public in commemoration of Dr. Oskar Reichel. »

AS, 2023