Richard Gerstl

• Anonymous Photographer
• c. 1900
• Photograph (enlarged detail)
• Leopold Museum, Vienna (Otto Breicha Archive)

Richard Gerstl is regarded as a prominent Austrian Expressionist who was active even before Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. He did not participate in the Vienna Secession but explored an individual style, characterized by the use of open and coarse brushstrokes and bold colors. The works of his last years are almost abstract and form-dissolving, without much attention to detail. Although Gerstl did not attain fame in his own time, today, he is considered a forerunner of Austrian Expressionism.