112121

UNTRACED

Preparatory work

Frau Carl Kupelwieser, née Bertha Wittgenstein 

Head and shoulders, head turned in three-quarter profile to the right, a high-necked blouse or dress just indicated

Oil on board, 71.2 x 50.8 cm (28 x 20 in.)

Studio Inventory, p. 36 (190): Three-quarter face portrait of a Lady and Frau. Kupelwieser [addition in unidentified contemporary handwriting]

This unsigned oil sketch, one of twenty preparatory works for the large family group portrait of the Kupelwieser family [10429], remains untraced although it was in the artist’s studio on his death.  

The present picture is similar to the earlier portrait drawing [10391], as well as a preparatory oil study on the verso of [10699], though in reverse. Three further oil studies of Bertha remained in the artist’s possession on his death, [93] and [94] (recto verso), but were destroyed in 1947 according to the terms of the artist’s will.

For biographical notes on the sitter, see [10391].

PROVENANCE:

In the possession of the artist on his death

AG 2014