Anton Kolig, Part 1 - Drawings

When I visited Vienna last year, I came across a lone painting by expressionist Anton Kolig 

(1886-1950) in the Belvedere Palace Museum.  I was intrigued by it, but didn't find out until 

later that there was a much larger collection of his work in the Leopold Museum, about the 

only Vienna museum I didn't visit.  Although he was married with a couple of kids, it was

 no secret that he was a gay man.  His body of work has dozens of male nudes and 

only a very few females.  Although he was Austrian, he was hired to be a 

professor at the Sturttgart Academy from 1928 to 1943, and that is

 where the photo above was taken.  We see the artist, two nude 

models, and two versions of a painting of them.

 

Standing Male 1934

Anton Kolig left us quite a large assortment of drawings, and nearly all of them are years 

past his academic training.  He apparently liked to sketch nude men, and most of these 

sketches can't be matched to paintings for which they might have been studies.  

We can't be sure about that last bit, however, because a significant portion of 

Kolig's paintings were destroyed by Allied bombing during World War II.

Our first sketch is Standing Male from 1934.

 

Front and Back

Kolig's drawings include quite a few pairs of men.

These two look like they may be in bed together.

 

Derriere

Anton Kolig apparently was a fan of frontal nudity because there are relatively

 few derriere views in his body of work.  This example is not dated.

 

1923

This oddity is a study done in 1923 that has the foot detached.

 

1910

Kolig's drawings include a lot of men shown from this angle 

for some reason.  This version is from 1910.

 

Anton Kolig, Intermission - World War I

Our intermission mini-set today is not only a break in our series, but it also represents a break of sorts in Anton Kolig's career.  When World War I broke out, he faced compulsory military service, 

but instead of being sent to the front, he was given a job doing art for the Austrian Army.  

The 1916 painting above is Oberleutnant Ludwig Ferdinand Graf, a fellow artist.

 

Russian

I wish I knew the story behind this one.  It's a portrait of an unknown Russion prisoner of war from 1916.  Did the Austrian Army commission it, or did Kolig manage it on his own somehow?

 

General

The Austro-Hungarian Empire has only a few months left when Anton Kolig 

painted this portrait of Gen. Gottfried Seibt von Ringenhart in 1918.

 

Anton Kolig, Part 2 - Male Nude Paintings

Part two of our double feature consists of male nudes done from 1920 to 1948.  

Anton Kolig really came into his own as an expressionist painter after World War I. 

 (Midway through World War II, the Nazis forced him to retire because they found 

his art degenerate.  Imagine that.  I'm surprised it took them that long, and even more

 surprised they didn't send him to a camp.)  Above is The Complaint from 1920.

 

Grim Reaper

This is a detail from a 1924 painted sketch for a mural that was to have been installed in the 

Vienna City Crematorium.  The mural was never completed, at least not in this version, and it is thought that the sketch represents Kolig's take on the grim reaper as a well hung muscular man.  Imagine going to Aunt Hildegard's cremation and looking up at that.  While many of us 

would have been just fine with the concept, the Vienna city fathers were not.

 

1925

Anton Kolig painted Nude Male Couple in 1925,

and it was quite daring for the time.

 

Family

This is The Painter's Family from 1933.  I'm not really sure just which

 painter's family it might be, but it is an interesting family portrait.

 

Rudolph Hradil

After the fall of the Nazi regime in 1945, Anton Kolig was able to resume painting 

with the style and subjects he preferred.  This is a Rudolph Hradil who posed in 1948.