Hiob (Job)

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.

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.

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.

1916

Meets Hofmannsthal and Rilke

In 1916 Kokoschka met Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Rainer Maria Rilke.

c. 1918 – 1919

The Alma doll

Unable to rid himself of painful memories of Alma, Kokoschka commissioned a life-sized female doll from the dollmaker Hermine Moos, later describing it in his book “Fetish” (1925). The doll did not satisfy him, and he destroyed it during a party.

1919–1924

Professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts

From 1919 Kokoschka was a professor at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts.