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Portrait of the Reserve Lieutenant Alois Gerstl, 1906

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on canvas
153×130.2 cm

Artists

  • Richard Gerstl

    (Vienna 1883–1908 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG3
In Portrait of the Reserve Lieutenant Alois Gerstl, Richard Gerstl (1883–1908) depicts his brother, who supported the artist, as their correspondence reveals, and who – after Richard committed suicide at an early age in 1908 – had his works put into storage by a shipping company until 1931. As with other portraits, for instance Smaragda Berg, Semi-Nude Self-Portrait and Mathilde Schönberg in the Garden, Gerstl selected a format that enabled life-sized depictions. Wearing his dress uniform, his brother is standing in front of a winged door that opens into the living room of a Gründerzeit apartment. As in Portrait of the Father Emil Gerstl, the artist chooses a brightly lit window as motif for the background and uses the resulting backlight conditions to create contrasts of light and dark that dominate the picture. The application of paint with a broad brush and a palette knife expresses vitality. Color becomes a means of expression and emancipates itself from representational purposes, which can for instance be seen in the green tablecloth at the center. The divisionist dissolution of color into dots, however, does not result in a blending of colors in the eye of the beholder. Rather, the brighter dots seem to levitate in front of a dark surface.

AGW, 2022

Object data

Artist/author
  • Richard Gerstl
Title
Portrait of the Reserve Lieutenant Alois Gerstl
Date
1906
Art movement
Impressionism, Secession
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
153×130.2 cm
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 639
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Richard Gerstl. Inspiration - Vermächtnis, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger u.a., Köln 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 27.09.2019-20.01.2020).
  • Meisterwerke Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Köln 2018.
  • Wien 1900. Sammlung Leopold, hrsg. von Diethard Leopold/Peter Weinhäupl, Wien u.a. 2009.
Keywords
man/boyportraitmilitary clothing and other equipment (uniforms/cap/helmet)dwellingdining-roommirrorwindowlighting/lampsstanding figurechairtable

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Richard Gerstl, Wien (1908);
August und Alois Gerstl, Wien (ab 1908); (1)

Rechte Bildhälfte (“Bildnis eines Leutnants (Alois Gerstl”):
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1953-1994); (2)

Linke Bildhälfte (“Großes Interieur mit Sessel und Spiegel“):
Neue Galerie, Wien (ab 1931); (3)
Otto Kainer, Wien (bis 1957); (4)
Galerie Würthle, Wien (1957-1968); (5)
Peter Kamm, Zug, Schweiz (1968); (6)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1968-1994); (7)
Vereinigung der beiden Bildhälften;
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994).

  1. Bildvorderseite: Nachlassbestätigung.
    Otto Kallir: Richard Gerstl (1883-1908). Beiträge zur Dokumentation seines Lebens und Werkes, in: Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie, Jg. 18 (1974), Nr. 62, S. 125.
  2. Diethard Leopold, Rudolf Leopold - Kunstsammler, Wien 2003, S. 82-85; Katalog der Secession, Wien 1966, Nr. 7.
  3. Kallir, Gerstl, 160 u. 126f: Dr. Otto Nirenstein erstellt 1931 ein Nachlassverzeichnis, das Bild wird in zwei Teile getrennt. Die rechte Bildhälfte wird als “Bildnis eines Leutnants (Alois Gerstl)” mit der Nr. 44 bezeichnet, die linke Bildhälfte wird als “Interieur” mit der Nr. 43 versehen. Ankauf von 36 Gemälden von Alois Gerstl.
  4. Kunsthaus Zug, Karteikarte der Galerie Würthle
  5. Katalog der Secession 1966, Nr. 8.
  6. Archiv des BDA, Ausfuhren AZ 14.339/68, Bescheid vom 20.06.1968
  7. Kunsthaus Zug, Karteikarte der Galerie Würthle

For provenance related information, please contact us.

Search in collection

man/boyportraitmilitary clothing and other equipment (uniforms/cap/helmet)dwellingdining-roommirrorwindowlighting/lampsstanding figurechairtable