(9) Austrian Danish

 

Today we have a nice mix of male and female artworks from two painters of the same generation. One is by famous Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890 -1918) and the other by the not-so-famous (as is often the case with great women painters) artist Gerda Wegener from Denmark (1886 -1940). This time my bathroom tiles only got postcards as the vis-a´-vis view from the loo. And what a contrast they are.  Schiele's is the "Housewall on the River" from 1915 which I saw when visiting the Leopold Museum in Vienna last March. I chose that particular card because otherwise Schiele is more associated with his uniquely distorted portraits of people he knew. So finding this row of houses (or is it all one house?) was a surprise. I liked the distinct brown palette. The building reminded me of a the old house in the 1958 French movie "Mon Oncle" from which Jacques Tati walked to the hyper modern one where is nephew lived.... 

I can feel the different materials, especially that stone wall and the wooden shutters. The laundry in the middle makes for a nice contrast. But in 1915 we can imagine the actual condition this place must have been in: poverty and hardship. Supposedly, as I read more about it,  this is a certain church in the town of Schiele's mother by the river Moldau, but I cannot see a church here. Sometimes it is not helpful to read "facts" about an artwork. In this case, Schiele didn't paint the church tower. (If you google "Jodokuskirche in Krumau an der Moldau" you will see what he painted. Seems like a great place to visit in the Czech Republic) 

The card by Gerda Wegener depicts a "Summer Day" from 1927 with a few ladies lolloping about. As I read in Wikipedia, Wegener liked to paint Lesbian erotica. There are quite a few nice portraits I much prefer over this group painting (such as "Queen of Hearts", "Lili Elbe" or "Eva Heramb"), but who cares?

At first I hadn't noticed the painter lady on the left cause the naked bum gets all the attention, but once I understood the whole scene partaking in a Southern town (France?) on a river promenade, I thought it a jolly nice composition, even if the nakedness outdoors in view for all is highly unlikely. But then they say the 1920s were quite decadent, so  why not?  Interesting is the accordion lady, the darkness of the instrument takes away from the easy going pastel mood, or? Anyway, certainly an artist to discover more of.