Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900

Portrait painting has long been a symbol of elite society. To commission a notable artist of the age, who would immortalise you in paint was certainly the fancy of many vein Viennese patrons’. Yet portraits have the ability to unlock unknown histories and as the works brought together in this enlightening exhibition demonstrate, the sitters tell us much more about contemporary Viennese society at the turn of the last century than they would ever realized. Obvious stars of the show are Gustav Klimt, his aspiring yet tortured student Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka along with lesser-known artists who all knew how to capture a likeness on canvas.