Something to Declare

July 18, 2024: The Leopold Museum, the Heuriger Experience

The Leopold Museum, founded by Rudolf Leopold, opened in 2001, with more than 5,000 pieces of art on display. To be sure, there is a bit of controversy about how Rudolf (a physician by training) obtained his collection. He has been described as a “too passionate collector” whose tough tactics led him to keep Nazi looted art. But this was the place with the largest concentration of original Egon Schieles in the world. Hmmmmm!

So we bit the bullet and strolled off the the Museumquartier of Vienna:

As promised, In the Leopold Museum was (big surprise!) a plethora of Klimts, from early to late in his career:

And a whole bunch of Schieles, including one of his self-portraits, a rendering of an embracing sensual couple, and the famous painting of his girlfriend and muse, Wally Neuzil:

The Wally painting was one of the ones that involved a court proceeding, and for which Rudolf Leopold had to pay ($$$) restitution in order to keep it in his collection. There were also some of Schiele’s lovely landscape and building paintings:

We’d planned for this trip to visit one of the famous wine bars/restaurants in the outer districts of Vienna. These places are called Heurigers, the name of which is a reference to “Today’s” or “New” wine. When we mentioned this to our new friends, the Freunds (or our new” Freunds,” same thing in German), Christian and Christa were kind enough to set up a reservation at one of the better, untouristy ones, the Stadtheuriger Johannes Müller in the upscale neighborhood of Grinzing.

Stef and I took two un-airconditioned trams to Grinzing and rendezvoused with Christian, his mother, Christa, Christian’s fiancée Andrea and their 4-year-old daughter, Sophie. We had another lively conversation, including reminiscences (with old photos) of our mutual friend, Randi Tillman.

Dinner included wine spritzers, crispy pork, and a vegan stuffed pepper (for you-know-who). Andrea also introduced me to the very un-vegan Grammelschmalz, a Viennese treat of bread spread with pork fat and onions:

Turns out that the Austrians render pork fat the same way my mother and grandmother rendered chicken fat (schmaltz), which also winds up containing little bits of crunchy crackling, which are also called Griebenes. Which are delicious, and can also result in a quick trip to the Cardiac Care Unit.