Portrait of Wally Neuzil

1912

Oil on wood, 32 × 39.8 cm. Leopold Museum, Vienna

A small horizontal portrait of the young woman who was the painter's partner and model at the time. The Leopold Museum calls it arguably the best-known image of her.

Painted alongside his lantern-plant self-portrait as its pendant; the museum ties the pairing to the odd layout of both.
Look at the tilted head, wide eyes and white collar set against a pale ground.
A dealer's catalogue of 1925 listed it simply as a woman's portrait with a flowering tendril.
Tight cropping brings her face close to ours; the picture records intimacy rather than social status.
Lea Bondi Jaray lost it when her Vienna gallery was taken over in 1938. Lent to MoMA in 1997, it was subpoenaed by the Manhattan District Attorney in January 1998; a 2010 settlement with her estate left it with the Leopold.

Pendant: One of a pair of pictures made to hang together as companions.

Image: Wikimedia Commons · PD-Art