Leopold. Masterpieces from the Leopold Museum in Vienna

This beautifully produced book is the catalogue written to accompany the opening of the Leopold Museum in Vienna, the new home for a previously privately-held collection of Austrian modernist art and, in particular, the world's largest collection of the works of Egon Schiele. This major assemblage of masterpieces, also including works by Klimt, Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl, opens for the first time to the public in September 2001. Commencing with the nineteenth-century paintings and drawings of Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller, August von Pettenkofen, Anton Romako, Carl Schuch and others, the catalogue moves chapter by chapter through the collection, tracing the history and development of Austrian art over the last two centuries. From Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Josef Hoffmann and Kolo Moser at the turn of the century, through Austrian expressionism, represented here by Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl, there is also a discussion of the Austrian arts and crafts movement. The catalogue concludes with essays on collectors and collecting, Expressionism, and biographies of the artists. Illustrated with over 200 colour and black-and-white plates, the publication completes the Leopold Museum's project to preserve for posterity this unique collection.