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#249

Portrait of Gitta Wallerstein

Kokoschka, Oskar ((1886-1980)) | Painter
Wallerstein, Gitta ((1886-1980)) | Person(s) shown

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“For Kokoschka, children are very special. They are valuable, they are bearers of experience, and they experience things very intensively...”

In 1921, Oskar Kokoschka painted a portrait of Gitta Wallerstein, daughter of an art dealer friend of his. At that time, Kokoschka was 35, the youngest professor at the Dresden Academy of Art, his wild years as the enfant terrible of the Vienna art scene behind him. Now, the portraits he was painting are almost psychological profiles of his sitters. This work, for instance, reflects the shy and earnest gaze of a young girl approaching adolescence. Kokoschka has painted Gitta in luminous blue and green tones in front of a broad river landscape. Curator Birgit Dalbajewa again:

"Gitta Wallerstein was ten years old when she sat for Kokoschka in his art academy studio on the Brühlsche Terrasse next to the Albertinum. Later, she recalled how incredibly nervous she was with this man with his Viennese accent. Since she was allowed to perform her gym exercises in his studio, she could move freely. From time to time, Kokoschka took a tube of colour, held it against her dress and asked her quite seriously whether, in her view, she thought the colour was the right one.”

In those days, Gitta Wallerstein was already taking dancing lessons. She went on to become a solo dancer at Berlin’s State Opera House. But since she came from a Jewish family, after the Nazi seizure of power she was banned from performing. In 1939, she emigrated to the USA. There, she initially worked as a dancer, but later became a doctor’s receptionist and a radiology assistant. Until her death in 2008, Gitta Wallerstein worked for human rights and cared for people with HIV/AIDS. She and Oskar Kokoschka remained friends for life.

 

Material & Technique
Oil on canvas
Museum
Galerie Neue Meister
Dating
1921
Inventory number
Inv.-Nr. 2014/04
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