Self-Portrait

1909–1914

Adolf Loos: patron and commissioner of portraits

The architect Adolf Loos befriended Kokoschka, introduced him to the Viennese avant-garde and ordered portraits of his clients and friends, agreeing to buy the work if the sitter declined. This left Kokoschka complete artistic freedom; he painted the bulk of his portraiture between 1909 and 1914.

1911–1913

Teaches in Vienna

From 1911 to 1913 Kokoschka taught in Vienna. Drawing on the ideas of the Czech humanist Jan Amos Comenius, he held that students benefit most from using their five senses to reason, and instead of conventional methods he taught through storytelling infused with mythological themes and dramatic emotion.

c. 1911 – 1914

The affair with Alma Mahler

Kokoschka’s stormy affair with Alma Mahler, the widow of the composer Gustav Mahler, lasted about two years: she was afraid of being overcome by passion and rejected him, and in 1915 she married Walter Gropius. Kokoschka loved her all his life.

1912

The lecture “On the Nature of Visions”

In 1912 Kokoschka delivered his essay “Von der Natur der Gesichte” (“On the Nature of Visions”) at the Akademischer Verband für Literatur und Musik in Vienna, setting out his ideas on the relationship between inner vision and optical sight.

1915

Gravely wounded in the First World War

Having volunteered as a cavalryman in the Austrian army, Kokoschka was seriously wounded on the Galician front in 1915 and survived captivity, and the doctors at the hospital judged him mentally unstable. Nevertheless he went on working, travelling across Europe and painting landscapes.