--- type: page title: Archive language: en url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/discover/archive" --- # Archive The mission of the Belvedere Archive centers on collecting, archiving, and documenting. The collection of in-house records makes it possible to track the more than one-hundred-year history of the museum since the foundation of the Modern Gallery in 1903. The artist documentation contains extensive material on more than 20,000 – mostly Austrian – artists that is continuously updated and can be searched via an online database. In addition to the historical archives, the collection also includes the estates of Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven (1883–1962) and Rudolf Schmidt (1894–1980), the Neue Galerie archive, and the Waldmüller archive. The estates of Austrian artists such as Franz Barwig, Bettina and Georg Ehrlich, Johann Peter Krafft, H+H Joos, Emilie Mediz-Pelikan, Trude Waehner, and Alfred Zoff are also available for research. ![Archiv des Belvedere Research Center Innenansicht — Photo: Clemens Niederhammer, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/main_image_aspect1_5__561x374/public/2019-06/IMG_2060.jpg.webp?itok=xoOp3TjN) ## Archive Holdings ![Aktenwand mit Akten im Karton — Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/2017_08_Hausakten-5-quer.jpg) #### **Historical Archive of the Belvedere** The collection of in-house files, almost completely intact, provides an overview of the history of the Belvedere Palace and the evolution of the museum since 1903 and is accessible via indices and register books. [File Index Online](https://digitale-bibliothek.belvedere.at/viewer/archiv-aktenindices/) ![Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Neue%20Galerie-quer.jpg) #### **Neue Galerie Archive** Otto Kallir-Nirenstein (1894–1978) established the Neue Galerie at Grünangergasse in Vienna in 1923 and is now regarded as an important patron of Austrian art (Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and Richard Gerstl among others). In 1938 Kallir was expelled by the Nazis and emigrated to the USA, where he opened the St. Etienne Gallery in New York. The management of the Neue Galerie in Vienna Kallir entrusted to his long-time collaborator, Vita Künstler, who managed the gallery until 1952. In 1976, the valuable inventory of business files was transferred to the Belvedere. Included in the files are business and artist correspondence, exhibition documents, newspaper clippings, and catalogues dating from the gallery's founding until 1954. These documents may be accessed and searched online in the Belvedere's Digital Library. [Online Archive of the Neue Galerie](https://digitale-bibliothek.belvedere.at/viewer/archivneuegalerie/) ![Aktenordner — Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/2017_08_Schmidt-3-quer.jpg) #### **Rudolf Schmidt Estate** In decades of work, the sculptor and art historian Rudolf Schmidt (1894–1980) collected materials for a comprehensive encyclopedia of Austrian artists, the first volume of which (A-D) was published in 1980 by Edition Tusch. After his death in 1981, the Belvedere purchased the entire collection of documentary material, comprising well over 15,000 entries, to eventually publish the remaining volumes of the encyclopedia. The Schmidt estate is arranged alphabetically by artist and is therefore easy to access. ![Alte Briefe und Bilder — Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/2017_08_Waldmu%CC%88ller-5-quer.jpg) #### **Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller-Archive** Following the death of Bruno Grimschitz, the former director of the Belvedere (previously the Österreichische Galerie), art historian Rupert Feuchtmüller took over his research into the work of Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller and continued it. In 1996 Feuchtmüller published the results of his findings in a monograph on the artist that also included a comprehensive catalogue raisonné. Since 1997, the Belvedere Archive has maintained and updated the Waldmüller Archive, access to which is via the work numbers in Feuchtmüller's catalogue of works. ![Aktenwand mit Akten — Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/2017_08_Ankwicz-6-quer.jpg) #### **Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven Estate** Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven (1883–1962) was an art historian, custodian at the Museum of Applied Arts, and librarian at the Academy of Fine Arts. His extensive documentation on artists (newspaper clippings, exhibition invitations, catalogues, correspondence, etc.), which was bequeathed to the Belvedere, contains information on more than 6,000 Austrian artists and is maintained and continuously supplemented by the archive staff, arranged alphabetically by artist. [Artist Documentation Online](http://archiv.belvedere.at/?spr=de) ![Akten im Karton — Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/2017_08_Schweiger-9-quer.jpg) #### **Werner J. Schweiger Art Archive** In 2010 the Belvedere acquired artist documentation by Werner J. Schweiger (1949–2011), an art historian from Lower Austria, which had been compiled over the course of several years. The documentation contains biographical and bibliographical data on about 5,000 Austrian artists between 1890 and 1938, in alphabetical order, and is accessible via an online database. Schweiger studied, among other topics, the subject of modern art collectors and art dealers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland between 1905 and 1937. ## Additional Archive Inventories The Belvedere Archive maintains a collection of documents varying in scope and level of detail on the following persons and institutions from the fields of art and culture. They include materials from business archives, documentation on artists, pre-mortem bequests, and estates. Galerie Altnöder, Salzburg Galerie Basilisk, Vienna Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz Galerie im Griechenbeisl, Vienna Galerie Grita Insam, Vienna Neuer Hagenbund Werkstatt Breitenbrunn Marc Adrian Gustinus Ambrosi Peter Baum Herbert Boeckl Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich und Georg Ehrlich Fria Elfen-Frenken Valie Export Karl Anton Fleck Gerhart Frankl Maria Jungwirth Heinrich Krenes Franz Matsch Georg Mayer-Marton Emilie Mediz-Pelikan und Karl Mediz Paul Meissner Fritz Novotny Hans Nowack Margot Pilz Erwin Puls Kurt Regschek August Schaeffer von Wienwald Curt Stenvert Theodor Stundl Carl Unger Emmy Walther-Burg Peter Weibel Alfred Wickenburg Ernst Zix Alfred Zoff ## Rarities ![Fotografien und Briefe — © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/2019-07/nachlass.jpg) The Belvedere Archive contains a wealth of ephemera, most of which is unpublished and little known even to art aficionados. ![Belvedere Historic Archive, Anton Hanak, letter to the Österreichische Galerie from 7 October 1924, file no. 498/1924 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Anton%20Hanak_498-1924.jpg) ![Trude Waehner in her studio, photo by Trude Fleischmann, inv. no. AKB_VN-3-S-1 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-3-S-1-2014-1.jpg) ![Artist documentation, Arik Brauer, poster design, Fantastic Realism exhibition, 2008 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Arik%20Brauer.jpg) ![Estate Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, questionnaire for an Austrian artist lexicon, Franz Lerch © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Fragebogen%20Franz%20Lerch.jpg) ![Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, acknowledgement of receipt, Fritz Grünbaum, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 324/84 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Neue%20Galerie_Gru%CC%88nbaum%201928_324-84.jpg) ![Artist portfolio Heinrich Krenes, inv. no. AKB_VN-30-W-3 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-30-W-3-2014-3.jpg) ![Estate Franz Matsch, Franz Matsch Junior, unknown photographer, inv. no. AKB_VN-25-S-24 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-25-S-24-2012-2.jpg) ![Belvedere Historic Archive, Gustav Klimt, copy permission for the painting Josef Lewinsky from August 1905, file no. 241/1905 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Copiergenehmigung%20Levinsky_1905_1.jpg) ![Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, postcard from Maria Schiele to Otto Nirenstein, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 324/12 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Neue%20Galerie_Maria%20Schiele_1928_324-12.jpg) ![Estate August Schaeffer von Wienwald, letter to his wife Emilie from 20 June 1884, inv. no. AKB_VN-12-K-2-5 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-12-K-2-5-2014-2.jpg) ![Estate Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich, sketch for the children’s book Cocolo’s Home, 1950, inv. no. AKB_VN-19-W-48 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Bettina%20Bauer-Ehrlich.jpg) ![Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, special supplement from 11 October 1928, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 405/3 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Neue%20Galerie_46.%20Ausstellung_405-3.jpg) ![Estate Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, Albin Egger-Lienz, War Welfare Office Card No. 325 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/Postkarte%20Egger-Lienz.jpg) ![Egon Schiele, letter to the State Gallery from 27 March 1917, file no. 157/1917 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_HA-1917-264-2014-2.jpg) ![Estate Alfred Zoff, sketchbook page, Künstlerhaus fall exhibition 1917, inv. no. AKB_VN-32-W-14-32 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-32-W-14-32-2013-2.jpg) ![Estate Marc Adrian, Self-Portrait, photo montage on display sheet, inv. no. AKB_VN-17-S-101 © Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/media-directories/AKB_VN-17-S-101-2012-2.jpg)