Egon Schiele – Portrait of Dr Hugo Koller

Portrait of Dr Hugo Koller is a 1918 work by Egon Schiele in which a Viennese doctor sits in a deep green armchair with an open book in his lap, ringed on every side by books. The original is in the Belvedere in Vienna under inventory number 4296; the museum record notes it is currently not on display. We make it as a hand-painted oil painting on linen, in thirteen sizes or to your own measurement, and we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.

Portrait of Dr Hugo Koller – Egon Schiele

Who was Dr Hugo Koller?

The museum record is brief, and we give it as it stands: Dr Hugo Koller, born in 1868, was a physician and a physicist, and his wife was the painter Broncia Koller-Pinell (1863–1934). That is the whole of what the Belvedere says about the sitter. Because the source says no more, we add no further professions and no collecting passions of our own invention; what this page knows about him, it knows from the museum record and from the work itself.

What does the work show?

A man in a dark blue-green suit with a waistcoat, a white collar and a dark tie, seated in a deep green armchair. An open book lies in his lap and he steadies it with both hands. The hands are painted with as much attention as the face: bony, with the veins and knuckles drawn out, so that they hold the eye almost as strongly as the head does. The gaze itself does not come towards the viewer but goes off to one side and slightly down, as though he were reading or had just stopped. The hair is thin and reddish, the moustache short. Beneath the armchair a reddish-brown floor runs across the picture with dark stripes in it.

Why are there so many books?

Because the books are set around the figure on every side, not merely behind him. At the left they lie in stacks turned fore-edge outward, so that what you see are the pale blocks of their pages; at the right they stand upright with their spines out; above the armchair further stacks are ranged; and along the bottom edge one more row runs across. Their red, grey, blue and olive shapes make a pattern that holds the whole surface together and gives the portrait its rhythm. One thing should be said plainly: the museum record says nothing about book collecting. The books are what the work shows, not a claim the source makes about the man.

Where is the signature?

Not on the front. For this work the museum record gives no signature on the face of the painting, only an inscription in the artist’s own hand on the reverse, on the stretcher: “Egon Schiele, Wien XIII, ‘Bildnis Dr. K.’ 1918”. So the painter’s Vienna address, the year, and his own name for the work, with the sitter’s surname cut down to an initial. That is a useful detail for this page and a caution at the same time: if you do not look for a signature on the front, the record says there is none there to find.

Why does this work matter?

Because it belongs among the late portraits of 1918, the year the painter died, and because it is one of those in which Schiele is not busy distorting a body but attending to the sober presence of a seated figure. As an expressionist painting it is unusually calm: the tension does not come from the pose but from the relation between a still man and the restless pattern surrounding him. That relation is the hardest thing to hit when the work is reproduced.

What is the canvas like and what is the format?

A portrait format: the record gives 140.3 x 110 cm, a canvas about a quarter taller than it is wide. The record gives the original as painted in oils on canvas; our reproduction is painted in oils on linen, which is our choice of support and not a statement about the original. We do not let the two blur together: the table above gives canvas for the original’s technique and linen for ours.

Where does it come from and where is it now?

The Belvedere publishes a chain of owners for this work, and we give it as the museum publishes it: Hugo Koller, Vienna; Rupert and Silvia Koller, Oberwaltersdorf; purchased in 1948 from the Galerie Welz in Vienna. The museum also names a contact for provenance research. Among the archive material a purchase document of 1948 survives, headed “Ankauf von Kunstwerken”, which lists five works with their inventory numbers, this portrait among them under 4296 and a Klimt portrait of a lady under 4286 — so the painting entered the house as part of a group and not on its own. The exhibition list begins in 1954 and runs on through 1968, 1990, 2006, 2011, 2017–2018 and 2018–2019 as far as an exhibition of 2024 devoted to Broncia Koller-Pinell, that is, to the sitter’s wife. The work is today in the Belvedere under inventory number 4296 and, per the record, currently not on display; the museum’s whole Schiele holding is listed on the Belvedere’s Egon Schiele page.

Where does this portrait sit among Schiele’s works?

Among the late portraits, immediately beside the Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith Schiele, painted in the same year and held by the same house. Where the painter came from is shown by the two portraits of 1910, the Portrait of Eduard Kosmack and the Portrait of Herbert Reiner; The Embrace of 1917 shows what he did when he had no use for a face at all. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, and there is more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele. Schiele was a younger contemporary of Gustav Klimt, and the Vienna Secession was the milieu he came out of; Viennese Expressionism is the movement he helped define, and Austrian art of the period is still read through those two names.

How is our hand-painted version made?

Every canvas is painted by an artist in oils, stroke by stroke. It is not a machine impression: what comes off the brush is a hand-painted copy made specifically for your order. On this subject two places are the hardest. The first is the books: painted too precisely they turn into wallpaper, and painted carelessly the pattern that holds the surface together falls apart. The second is the hands, which have to stay bony and sinewy rather than becoming clumsy. When the work is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. For this family we hold no studio photographs — the work has not been photographed in our workshop yet, and nothing has been removed; when it is next painted it will be photographed and the images added to this page. As a canvas reproduction it arrives stretched on a wooden bar and ready to hang.

Which size suits which wall?

Short answer: above a sofa choose 110 x 140 cm or larger; for a smaller wall 70 x 90 cm is enough. On this subject 110 x 140 cm has a particular claim, because of all our sizes it comes closest to the size of the original, which measures 140.3 x 110 cm. An upright subject behaves differently from a horizontal one — it does not need length beneath it but height above, so it works well beside a door, between windows, or alone on a narrow wall. Above a bed 120 x 150 cm is the usual choice. Our largest format is 160 x 205 cm and the smallest is 50 x 65 cm. A canvas painting at that scale needs distance: the face, the hands and the pattern of books only settle together from a few metres.

How do I order a made-to-measure size, stretcher bar and frame?

If none of the thirteen sizes suits your wall, we paint the work to your own measurement. The canvas comes stretched on a wooden bar; our 3D application is for choosing a frame only, not for showing the work on your own wall. You choose the frame separately and it is not necessarily part of the order.

How is it delivered and what do we guarantee?

We paint to order and deliver to sixteen countries in the European Union, among them Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland; the United Kingdom and Ireland are not currently among them. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval; if you are not satisfied with the result we correct it or paint it again. Because each painting is made individually, the production time varies with the size and with the studio’s current workload.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original kept?

In the Belvedere in Vienna, inventory number 4296; the museum record notes it is currently not on display.

Who is in the work?

Dr Hugo Koller, born in 1868; a physician and a physicist, per the museum record.

What is he reading?

The museum record does not name the book. All that can be seen is that it is open and that he holds it with both hands.

Is this a print?

No. Every canvas is painted by hand in oils by an artist.

Is the painting signed on the front?

Per the museum record, no. Only an inscription in the artist’s own hand on the reverse, on the stretcher, is given.

How large is the original canvas?

140.3 x 110 cm, so upright.

Which of your sizes is closest to the original?

110 x 140 cm; of the thirteen it is the one that comes nearest the original’s measurements.

Can I have a size that is not on the list?

Yes, we paint the work to any measurement you specify.

How does it arrive?

Stretched on a wooden bar and protectively packed; the frame is optional.

Is the original for sale?

It is not for sale; it belongs to the public Belvedere collection and is not on the market.

Does it work as a gift?

It does; if you are unsure which size to choose there is a gift voucher.

• Subject: Dr Hugo Koller seated in a green armchair with an open book in his lap, surrounded by books.
• Original: 1918, oil on canvas, 140.3 x 110 cm, Belvedere Vienna, inv. no. 4296, currently not on display.
• Ours: hand-painted in oils on linen, 13 sizes or a made-to-measure size.
• Worth knowing: per the museum record the work is inscribed only on the reverse, on the stretcher.