The Leopold Museum houses the world's largest and most significant collection of Schiele's work, alongside masterpieces by other major Austrian artists of the period, such as Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka.
Today, the Leopold Museum stands as the leading institution for showcasing a representative overview of the art of "Vienna 1900," in all its forms and media.
Rudolf Leopold was born on 1 March 1925 in Vienna into a middle-class family with ties to the Christian Social Party of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß (1932-1934), who was assassinated by Austrian Nazis.
As a visible tribute to him, the families donated ten trees, which were planted by the Jewish National Fund in "eternal memory of this friend of mankind" and are now part of Mount Herzl near Jerusalem.
[2] At 14, when World War II began, Rudolf Leopold evaded Nazi conscription by hiding in a remote Austrian village.
A pivotal moment in 1947 during a visit to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna inspired him to begin collecting art, focusing on 19th-century Austrian landscape paintings in the "atmospheric Impressionism" style.
Leopold was instrumental in reinterpreting Schiele’s early, expressionist works (1910-1914), transforming perceptions of his controversial nude drawings from pornographic to psychologically and existentially significant.
Leopold’s lifelong research culminated in the seminal monograph "Egon Schiele – Paintings, Watercolours, Drawings" (1972, German; 1973, English), which provided detailed analyses and over 200 illustrations.
[3] The Leopold Collection spans Austrian art from the late Baroque to the early 20th century, peaking with the Secessionist movement (1895-1918), featuring artists such as Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, and others.
In his review for The New York Times, Holland Cotter highlighted that Egon Schiele's works, often noted for their "X-rated subject matter," were rarely displayed in U.S.
[5] Later that year, Judith H. Dobrzynski published an investigative article uncovering Leopold's controversial acquisition practices, including his connection to Lea Bondi Jaray, the original owner of Schiele's Portrait of Wally before World War II.