Leopold Museum. Highlights
Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism
The Leopold Museum, situated in the heart of Vienna, is the leading museum within the MuseumsQuartier Wien. In addition to its fascinating temporary exhibitions, the museum houses the world's most extensive and significant Egon Schiele collection, comprising over 300 artworks and more than 1,000 archive materials. Since the establishment of the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994, when around 5,300 exhibits were contributed by Rudolf Leopold, the museum has expanded its collection to over 8,600 paintings, graphics and artifacts from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection, with a particular emphasis on Austrian art from 1830 to 1930, was meticulously assembled over a period of five decades by Austrian ophthalmologist Rudolf Leopold.
Birth of Modernism
The permanent exhibition "Vienna 1900" spans three floor levels and over 2,500 square meters, offering a resplendent panorama of the artistic and cultural heyday in Vienna around 1900—a period marked by the flourishing of Jugendstil, the ascendance of the Secessionists, the demise of the Habsburg Monarchy, and the upheavals of the interwar years. Alongside the rich holdings from Schiele's oeuvre, the focus is on the work of Gustav Klimt, who is represented in the Leopold Museum with over 20 paintings, 130 drawings and more than 300 autographs.
The museum also showcases a distinguished array of Austrian painting and graphic art, featuring eminent figures such as Hans Makart, Anton Romako, Tina Blau, Olga Wiesinger-Florian, Oskar Kokoschka, Richard Gerstl, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Broncia Koller-Pinell and others. The collection is further enriched by exquisite arts and crafts and original furnishings from the period of Jugendstil and the Wiener Werkstätte.
Insights into the Collection
Since 2024, the museum has made an extraordinary selection of works from its collection accessible via Kulturpool. Additionally, a newly acquired collection of over six hundred archival documents pertaining to Egon Schiele—correspondence, photographs, postcards, etc.—has been digitized and made available. The museum's holdings further include a vast collection of design drafts for the Wiener Werkstätte by Josef Hoffmann, Koloman Moser, Dagobert Peche and others, alongside arts and crafts objects executed in wood, glass, and metal and designed by Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, and the Wiener Werkstätte. The collection is complemented by remarkable ceramic works e.g. by Vally Wieselthier, Michael Powolny, and Richard Luksch.