Klimt and Schiele, Howard and Russell

Yesterday was a full-on day and evening of art. In the afternoon I went to the exhibition of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele’s drawings from the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

Though 28 years divided the two artists they died in the same year (1918) and both their lives were dogged by controversy. Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century was a melting pot of creativity. Aside from these artists, there was the writer Stefan Zweig, the song writer Carl Schnizler and of course Sigmund Freud.

Traditionally drawing is the foundation of composition and at art school its grammar must be mastered.

Although Picasso might be seen to have torn up the rule book his early drawings aged 12 drew comparison to Raphael.

Both these painters were master draughtsmen.

Yet there seemed a profound difference as Klimt’s drawings were preparatory for his more complex studies.

Despite his secessionist movement, when he broke away from the formality of being a court painter for the emperor Franz Joseph, he continued to be in demand as a portrait painter.

Egon Schiele’s drawings are stand alone.

I have to admit a slight degree of discomfort staring at a woman’s vagina with her legs splayed open.

Although Schiele was incarcerated and prosecuted this was for abduction of a minor and showing her his drawings, 125 of which were confiscated by the trial judge and one burnt.

It’s a relatively small collection in the Sackler Wing of the Royal Academy too crowded for my taste. Yet worth seeing for that.

Later I introduced Jack Russell to my old friend Ken Howard at the latter ‘s studio in South Kensington, once owned by the fashionable Victorian artist William Orpen who at one time was earning £57000 annually.

Ken is 86 but full of energy. He regularly visits his studio in Venice despite being stopped from painting there for lack of a permit.

Jack is a keen admirer, whilst Ken enjoys his cricket. He submitted a portrait of Joe Root for the Summer Exhibition.

Well-fed and watered by his third wife Dora, it was a lively evening of artistic chat. Ken has managed his career well and – as Klimt did for Schiele – passed on some pearls of wisdom to the younger man.