MAK (Museum of Applied Arts)

Our last museum visit was at the Museum of Applied Arts and especially its "Vienna 1900" permanent collection. Vienna has so many fine arts museums relatively few visitors get to the MAK. We found it eminently worthwhile. Discount admission on Tuesday evenings, too.

Facade of main hall; beautiful 19th century building

Interior; Pompeii painting decor on the ceilings; nevermind the
huge over-sized couch on the main floor; it will figure in a later
post

Ceiling; we visited in the evening, so didn't get the
full effect

Humongous marquetry restoration project being done out on the
floor of the cabinetry exhibit room

Main attraction

Josef Hoffman, Cabinet Presented at the 1st Secession

Exhibition, 1898; if Darth Vader were a cabinet, he would

look like this, Vicki says

Poster...

Tony Selmersheim, Petroleum Lamp, 1900

Beautiful silver tray; guess I was too overwhelmed to get the designer's
name

Henry van de Velde, Writing Desk, 1900

Adolf Loos, Corner Seating for a Study, 1900; way before "less is
more"

Theodore Pogacnik, Wine Mug, 1900

Alfons Mucha, Poster for Austria exhibit at the Paris, 1900,
World Fair

Kolomon Moser, Guestroom from House Moser, 1901; so comfy, 
warm, and inviting...we're now clearly out of art nouveau

Klimt, part of nine "drawings" for a house in Brussels, 1910

Josef Hoffman, Tea Service, 1903

Kolomon Moser, Jewelry Box, 1906

Josef Hoffman, Chandelier, 1914

More of the Klimt drawings...

Much of a wall

The big thrill for us...Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, The Seven
Princesses, 1908, for a house in her native Glasgow

Detail: note the Mackintosh roses

And then it was all over...

Dagobert Peche, Display Cabinet, 1920

We also took in a couple special exhibits, one on the
picture book as artistic medium

That was fabulous

And another rounding up the 100 best posters of 2021 from
Germany, Austria, and Switzerland

Personal favorite: "Measure Everything: Know Your
Numbers"; great museum experience

Belvedere Museum, 2022: 2

 Continuing our visit to the Belvedere palace and its museum...

Klimt, Forester's House in Weissenbach on the Attersee, 1914

Egon Schiele, House Wall, 1914

Schiele, The Embrace, 1917; The Foreplay was on loan somewhere else

Schiele, Squatting Couple, 1918; actually a threesome, but who's
counting?

Schiele, Death and the Maiden, 1915

Franz Wiegele, Nudes in the Forest, 1910-1911

Arnold Bocklin, The Painter Franz von Lenbach, 1904;

saw his work in Berlin, some of it

Gustav Klimt, Amalie Zuckerkandl, 1917-1918; over his gold period

Karl Klager, Arrival of a Train at Vienna Northwestern Station, 1875;

compare Monet's Gare Saint-Lazaire, 1877

One of the reasons for visiting the Belvedere is the views of inner
Vienna...here, St. Stephen's with the chancel roof double eagle 
showing; to the left, is Hundertwasser's incinerating art work, 
blowing smoke; the subject of a coming post...

Belvedere's formal gardens

Jean-Francois Millet, The Plain of Chailly with Harrow and Plough, 1862

Vincent van Gogh, The Plain of Auvers, 1890; interesting pairing, as
Millet was one of van Gogh's heroes; earlier...

Gustave Courbet, A Wounded Man, 1866

Most interesting thing at the Belvedere...The Znaim Altarpiece,
carved polychrome reliefs, Moravia, 1440-1445, largely original
polychromy; 1440, folks...the rest of Europe was just barely
working its way out of international Gothic...this thing is full
Renaissance in terms of its emotional expression, etc.

Not least this guy sticking his tongue out at the Mother of God...

Adjacent to the Belvedere is the University of Vienna botanical
garden...most labels on plants I've ever seen...but it was end of
October and most of the plants were spent

Belvedere Museum, 2022: 1

We visited the Belvedere in 2010 and were not overly impressed. In 2022, we figured, we had learned a great deal more art history and should give the Belvedere another shot. What you get from such visits depends a great deal on what you bring to them, right? So we visited on October 23rd and indeed appreciated far more than in 2010. But still not overly impressed: we're just not into the Klimt/Schiele/expressionist thing. But there was plenty else to appreciate.

A big complex, outside the Ring, on high ground,
a position the field marshal would choose

The palace, now mostly the museum

Lots of neo-classicla/Baroque sculpture, including half a dozen
atlantines not included the Vienna caryatid post

Prince Eugene of Savoy: Louis XIV considered
him too short and ugly to be of military use, so
he volunteered his services to the Habsburgs, first
driving the Turks out of Austria, and then, with
Marlborough, defeating Louis' forces at Blenheim;
Belvedere was his reward, just as Blenheim was
Marlborough's

Helpful model

White, white, white is the color of our entry hall

Baroque, Baroque, Baroque...

The treaty that established Austria as an independent republic,
in May of 1955, was signed by the Great Powers, here

And announced from this very balcony

And now, on to the art collection: Hans Makart, The Five Seasons,
1872-1879; wait, no, The Five Elements

Edward Munch, Men on the Seashore, 1908

Monet, The Chef, 1882; why Monet didn't do portraits;
had a big bill at the restaurant...

Another nice Monet...alas, I didn't get the title

August Rodin, Gustav Mahler,1909

Gustav Klimt, Fritza Riedler, 1906

Klimt, Adam and Eve, 1917-1918

Klimt, The Smooch, 1908; at the height of his gold period; the Judith
was apparently on loan somewhere