Egon Schiele: The Making of a Collection

In 1918 the Belvedere Museum in Vienna became the first Austrian museum to acquire an oil painting by Egon Schiele during his lifetime. Now, a century later, the museum owns one of the top collections of paintings from the artist’s final decade of works.

This volume presents the highlights of the museum’s Schiele collection, including some of the artist’s most beloved paintings, such as Eduard Kosmack, House Wall, Death and Girl, The Embrace, and Four Trees. At the same time, the volume investigates the life cycles of these works themselves, from the history of their acquisition, provenance research, and restoration to how museum reforms will reshape collections of Schiele’s works moving forward. Dazzlingly illustrated throughout, the book provides an opportunity to study the artist’s paintings in greater detail and to follow the fascinating routes taken by his works before reaching the museum, and beyond.

Stella Rollig is general director of the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, and is the editor of Beyond Klimt and Maria Theresa and the Arts, both also published by Hirmer Publishers. Kerstin Jesse is a curator at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna.