At the Margins of Portraiture

Revisions of a Genre in Viennese Modernism in the Work of Georg Simmel, Julius von Schlosser, and Egon Schiele

  • Laura Feurle (Author)
    University of Konstanz
    https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8146-4178

    Laura Feurle pursued her studies in literature, art, and media studies at the University of Konstanz from 2013 to 2020. She was also a recipient of the prestigious Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes scholarship from 2017 to 2020 and completed an internship at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome in 2019. Since 2020, she is a research associate and PhD candidate in art history at the University of Konstanz. Currently, she works as a curator at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. Her research interests focus on the aesthetics of production and art theory in Viennese Modernism, with a particular focus on portraiture and nude painting, approached from postcolonial and gender-critical perspectives.

Identifiers (Article)

DOI: https://doi.org/10.48636/brj.2024.1.94243

Abstract

This article reevaluates the conventional understanding of Viennese Modernist portraiture, arguing that its frequently debated “crisis” represents a productive revision of traditional genre theory. To support this argument, neglected contemporaneous discourses on portrait theory are examined, which oppose a psychological framework of interpretation. Theoretical writings of Georg Simmel and Julius von Schlosser are brought into a dialogue with selected works on paper by Egon Schiele, which were produced between 1910 and 1913 and are imbued with a distinctive self-reflexivity. By challenging established genre paradigms, the three contemporaries foreground the significance of the individual pictorial appearance and its potential to generate meaning. Their aesthetic approach highlights the dynamic interplay between form, subject, materiality, and meaning and offers methodological implications for future scholarly analysis.

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Issue
Vol. 2 (2024): Belvedere Research Journal
Section
Research Articles
Language
en
Keywords
Portrait, Theory portrait, Schiele Egon, Simmel Georg, Schlosser Julius von, Waetzoldt Wilhelm, Monism, Aesthetics, Self-reflexivity, Modernism Viennese, Methodology, Vienna, Vienna 1900, 20th century, Dualism, Self-portrait, Painting, Wittgenstein Ludwig, Theory art
How to Cite
Feurle, L. (2024). At the Margins of Portraiture: Revisions of a Genre in Viennese Modernism in the Work of Georg Simmel, Julius von Schlosser, and Egon Schiele. Belvedere Research Journal, 2(1), 111–141. https://doi.org/10.48636/brj.2024.1.94243

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