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

Archive Holdings

 
Aktenwand mit Akten im Karton
Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna

 

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

 

 
Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna

 

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

 
Aktenordner
Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 
Akten im Karton
Photo: Stefan Lehner, © Belvedere, Vienna

 

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.

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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

 

Inhalt 4

Rarities

Fotografien und Briefe
© Belvedere, Vienna

 

The Belvedere Archive contains a wealth of ephemera, most of which is unpublished and little known even to art aficionados.

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Belvedere Historic Archive, Anton Hanak, letter to the Österreichische Galerie from 7 October 1924, file no. 498/1924 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Trude Waehner in her studio, photo by Trude Fleischmann, inv. no. AKB_VN-3-S-1 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Artist documentation, Arik Brauer, poster design, Fantastic Realism exhibition, 2008 © Belvedere, Vienna
Estate Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, questionnaire for an Austrian artist lexicon, Franz Lerch © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, acknowledgement of receipt, Fritz Grünbaum, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 324/84 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Artist portfolio Heinrich Krenes, inv. no. AKB_VN-30-W-3 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Estate Franz Matsch, Franz Matsch Junior, unknown photographer, inv. no. AKB_VN-25-S-24 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Belvedere Historic Archive, Gustav Klimt, copy permission for the painting Josef Lewinsky from August 1905, file no. 241/1905 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, postcard from Maria Schiele to Otto Nirenstein, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 324/12 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Estate August Schaeffer von Wienwald, letter to his wife Emilie from 20 June 1884, inv. no. AKB_VN-12-K-2-5 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Estate Bettina Bauer-Ehrlich, sketch for the children’s book Cocolo’s Home, 1950, inv. no. AKB_VN-19-W-48 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Neue Galerie Archive Vienna, special supplement from 11 October 1928, Schiele Hagenbund exhibition 1928, inv. no. 405/3 © Belvedere, Vienna
Estate Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven, Albin Egger-Lienz, War Welfare Office Card No. 325 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Egon Schiele, letter to the State Gallery from 27 March 1917, file no. 157/1917 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Estate Alfred Zoff, sketchbook page, Künstlerhaus fall exhibition 1917, inv. no. AKB_VN-32-W-14-32 © Belvedere, Vienna

 

Estate Marc Adrian, Self-Portrait, photo montage on display sheet, inv. no. AKB_VN-17-S-101 © Belvedere, Vienna