Kallir Research Institute

Kallir Research Institute Foundation for the study of Austrian & German Expressionism and Self-Taught Art

Conceived as a direct response to World War I, Käthe Kollwitz’s “War” cycle illustrates civilian grief over soldier deat...
06/16/2026

Conceived as a direct response to World War I, Käthe Kollwitz’s “War” cycle illustrates civilian grief over soldier deaths—a sentiment with which the artist was personally acquainted. Kollwitz’s youngest son, Peter, was killed in action in October 1914, shortly after enlisting. ⁠
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The German artist turned to the physically demanding medium of woodcut to evoke the traumatic impact in seven scenes executed between 1918 and 1923. While the series does not reference a particular time or place, it unequivocally indicts the senselessness of exchanging human life for abstractions, such as glory and honor.

🎨 Image: Käthe Kollwitz, “The Mothers,” woodcut; plate 6 from the cycle “War.”

Through self-portraiture, Egon Schiele (born on this day in 1890 🎊) interrogated identity and personal purpose. The Aust...
06/12/2026

Through self-portraiture, Egon Schiele (born on this day in 1890 🎊) interrogated identity and personal purpose. The Austrian artist’s more than 225 self-portraits across all media are psychologically insightful, and stylistically distinct from one year to the next.

The four works shown here date to 1910, the year of Schiele’s “Expressionistic breakthrough.” The bold poses and coloring common to these sheets are hallmarks of the young artist’s early mature works.

Egon Schiele images: “Self-Portrait with Hand to Cheek, 1910, gouache, watercolor, and charcoal on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna; “Grimacing Man (Self-Portrait),” 1910, gouache, watercolor, and charcoal on yellow paper, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Vienna; “Self-Portrait, Torso with Head Bent to the Right,” 1910, gouache, watercolor, and black crayon with white heightening on paper, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington; “Male N**e in Profile Facing Left (Self-Portrait),” 1910, gouache, watercolor, and black crayon with white heightening on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna.

Richard Gerstl felt more at ease among musicians than in the company of fellow artists. From 1905, the young Austrian pa...
06/11/2026

Richard Gerstl felt more at ease among musicians than in the company of fellow artists. From 1905, the young Austrian painter grew close to the radical composer Arnold Schoenberg, who welcomed Gerstl into his wide network of musical friends.⁠ Gerstl joined his new cohort on their annual summer holiday in 1907 and 1908. On these trips, he created several stunning canvases, including the group portrait shown here.

Not long after their 1908 sojourn, Gerstl ran off with Schoenberg’s wife Mathilde. The affair was short-lived; Mathilde was soon persuaded to return to her husband and children. Bereft of both his lover and his most significant group of friends, Gerstl was devastated.⁠ He died by his own hand in November of that year, having never publicly exhibited during his brief lifetime.

🎨 Image: Richard Gerstl, "Group Portrait with Schönberg," 1908, oil on canvas; Kunsthaus Zug, Stiftung Sammlung Kamm | Kamm Collection Foundation.

In Egon Schiele’s figural works of 1914, the drawing style suggests an underlying structure of muscle and bone. The Aust...
06/06/2026

In Egon Schiele’s figural works of 1914, the drawing style suggests an underlying structure of muscle and bone. The Austrian artist’s linework and coloring serve to heighten his subjects’ plasticity: elaborate cross-hatching and the edging of human forms with contrasting tones of red, green, and ochre both contribute to a convincing sense of volume.

In the example shown here, the model’s angular shoulder blades, sharp elbow, and the meandering pencil lines down her back emphasize her skeletal structure. The careful detailing of her hands and lowered head call attention to these features.

Image: Egon Schiele, “Kneeling Female N**e, Facing Left,” 1914, gouache, watercolor, and pencil on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna.

After Egon Schiele’s 1912 imprisonment (for “public immorality”), Gustav Klimt introduced him to August and Serena Leder...
06/04/2026

After Egon Schiele’s 1912 imprisonment (for “public immorality”), Gustav Klimt introduced him to August and Serena Lederer, who were prominent Viennese patrons of the arts. Schiele painted their teenaged son, Erich, that same year, producing a number of studies of him and his older sister, Elisabeth, around the same time. He hoped eventually to paint the entire family, but no such commission ever materialized.

August Lederer would have been about 61 years old when he posed for this 1918 charcoal portrait. In linework at once bold and spare, Schiele describes the industrialist as well-dressed, serious, and assured.

Image: Egon Schiele, “August Lederer,” 1918, charcoal on paper.

While most of Gustav Klimt’s drawings served as studies for his paintings, “Fish Blood” is a fully realized artistic exp...
06/02/2026

While most of Gustav Klimt’s drawings served as studies for his paintings, “Fish Blood” is a fully realized artistic expression. The ethereal women rendered here in pencil and ink may represent the gender binary of the fin-de-siècle period, in which women were largely seen as embodying primordial nature, consumed by sexual instinct.

After its first public exhibition at the 1903 Vienna Secession, the drawing vanished from public view until its “rediscovery” nearly a century later.

🎨 Image: Gustav Klimt, "Fish Blood," 1898, pencil and ink on heavy brown wove paper.

Egon Schiele’s lingering stylistic debt to Jugendstil (the Germanic interpretation of Art Nouveau) is evident in this 19...
05/30/2026

Egon Schiele’s lingering stylistic debt to Jugendstil (the Germanic interpretation of Art Nouveau) is evident in this 1909 watercolor’s two-dimensionality and ornamental monogram. The two subjects’ partial concealment in a capacious shared robe, and the touches of color to the visible portions of their faces, however, prefigure Schiele’s “Expressionistic breakthrough” of the following year.

Though typically clean-shaven, the Austrian artist wore a mustache toward the end of 1909. Each of these figures alludes to his persona.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Couple,” circa 1909, watercolor and pencil on paper. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Speyer Purchase Fund for Drawings.

Human figures often fill the page in Egon Schiele’s 1911 drawings, with poses and drapery extending to the edges of the ...
05/28/2026

Human figures often fill the page in Egon Schiele’s 1911 drawings, with poses and drapery extending to the edges of the sheet. Ill-defined supporting structures—trapezoidal “pillows” and womblike blankets—consume much of the pictorial space.

“Reclining Girl,” shown here, was executed during Schiele’s gradual transition to a more delicate drawing style. Because the artist still favored a soft pencil (by year’s end he’d prefer harder leads), his line is bold. His careful treatment of the sleeping subject’s hand and face soften the angular composition.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Reclining Girl,” 1911, pencil on paper.

It may come as a surprise that, despite an oeuvre consisting mainly of landscapes, Grandma Moses rarely painted outdoors...
05/26/2026

It may come as a surprise that, despite an oeuvre consisting mainly of landscapes, Grandma Moses rarely painted outdoors. She instead dedicated focused time to observing her surrounding environment. Moses reflected on her approach: “I find that I work much better this way than if I paint directly from nature. My imagination has freer play and my subjects are not confined to objects around me.”⁠
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Featuring roughly 80 of the self-taught artist’s imagined scenes, the Smithsonian American Art Museum retrospective “Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work” (through July 12, 2026) examines Moses’s lasting impact on American art history.

Ten years in the making, the exhibition includes 15 paintings either donated or promised to SAAM by the Kallir family, along with loans from dozens of American museums and private collections.

Image: Grandma Moses, "How the Wind Blows," 1946, oil on high-density fiberboard. Private collection, NY. © Grandma Moses Properties Co., NY.

Egon Schiele sometimes positioned himself on a ladder or stool in his studio, drawing his models from an elevated vantag...
05/23/2026

Egon Schiele sometimes positioned himself on a ladder or stool in his studio, drawing his models from an elevated vantage point. The Austrian artist’s signature typically corresponds with his placement in relation to his subject in the resulting works, potentially disorienting the viewer.

For this 1914 example, we may assume Schiele worked at the feet of the model reclining on a cushion below him. The sheet’s blank background and vertical orientation render the figure strangely weightless, crouched and balanced on tiptoe.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Reclining Woman with Blond Hair,” 1914, gouache, watercolor, and pencil on simile Japan paper, The Baltimore Museum of Art; Purchase, F***y B. Thalheimer Memorial Fund and Friends of the Art Fund.

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