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Portrait of Josef von Wertheimstein, 1921

Leopold Museum,
Vienna © Herbert Boeckl estate,
Vienna
Oil on wood
65×50.2 cm

Artists

  • Herbert Boeckl

    (Klagenfurt 1894–1966 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
The signature and inscription on the reverse of this painting reveal the identity of the subject: “Josef Edler von Wertheimstein, painted in Klagenfurt, H. B. 1921.” The origins of Herbert Boeckl’s (1894–1966) impasto are still unclear. The Carinthian artist’s extremely pastose style of painting seems to be without precedent in both Viennese Modernism and the art of his contemporaries in Paris and Berlin. A link might be found to the oeuvre of Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980), even though Boeckl was not interested in the splendor of color that marked Kokoschka’s works in these years. Instead, he virtually submerged the subject in Portrait of Josef von Wertheimstein both in the mass of colors and in the shades he selected.

Text Leopold Museum

Object data

Artist/author
  • Herbert Boeckl
Title
Portrait of Josef von Wertheimstein
Date
1921
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on wood
Dimensions
65×50.2 cm
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 657
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Moderne Österreichische Farbmalerei um 1918, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, Wien 2021 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 03.02.2021-24.05.2021).
  • Herbert Boeckl. Retrospektive, hrsg. von Agnes Husslein-Arco/Matthias Boeckl Wien 2009 (Ausst.-Kat. Belvedere, Wien, 21.10.2009-31.01.2010).
  • Herbert Boeckl. Mit einem Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde von Leonore Boeckl, hrsg. von Gerbert Frodl, Salzburg 1976.
Catalogue raisonne
  • Husslein-Arco 2009: 40
  • Frodl 1976: 26
Keywords
man/boyportraithead

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Herbert Boeckl, Wien (1966);
Familie Boeckl, Wien;
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien; (1)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994)

  1. Agnes Husslein-Arco (Hg.), Herbert Boeckl, Wien 2009, S. 340, Nr. 40

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Search in collection

man/boyportraithead