Peter Altenberg

Bernard Löffler is widely recognized as one of the leading figures of the Weiner Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop)—a design collective of modern artists, founded in 1903, that objected to the prevailing conservative ideology of Austrian art. This pen and ink drawing is an outstanding early example of Löffler's exuberant modern design aesthetic, which grew out of his affinity for the bold, linear style and decorative motifs of French art nouveau. The drawing's stylized patterning, geometric motifs, and strongly flattened pictorial space are characteristic of Löffler's graphic style of this period, which in this example perfectly complements the flamboyant spirit of the picture's famous sitter, the Bohemian writer Peter Altenberg. Löffler and Altenberg were both friends and colleagues on the forefront of Vienna's intellectual and cultural renaissance. The drawing may be a study for an unrealized printed illustration or bookplate.