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The Puppet
Oskar
Kokoschka über die Puppe (0,4 MB)
In July I9I8 Oskar Kokoschka ordered a life-size doll from
the Munich doll-maker Hermine Moos as a substitute for his
lost love. It was to be made to look exactly like Alma Mahler.
On July 22 he already returned a model of the head, having
checked it and made suggestions as to how the work should
proceed. "If you are able to carry out this task as I
would wish, to deceive me with such magic that when I see
it and touch it imagine that I have the woman of my dreams
in front of me, then dear Fräulein Moos, I will be eternally
indebted to your skills of invention and your womanly sensitivity
as you may already have deduced from the discussion we had."
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left: Kokoschka's
letter to Hermine Moos
right: Study for "Woman in blue" (1919) |
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The doll was not finished until the second half of February
1919. On February 22 Kokoschka asked to have the doll sent to
him. The ensuing disappointment was huge. The doll could scarcely
fulfil Kokoschka’s erotic and sexual desires and in the
end became no more than a kind of still-life model. The artist
then took the place of the unhappy lover and by means of a painterly
(and graphic) metamorphosis of the doll he breathed new life
into Alma as a "figure of art”.
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left:
"Devotion" (1918)
right: Hermine Moos with the puppet |
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When Kokoschka was questioned on the matter of his fetish
in I93I/32, he came straight to the point: "Finally,
after I had drawn it and painted it over and over again,
I decided to do away with it. It had managed to cure
me completely of my Passion. So I gave a big champagne
Party with chamber music, during which my maid Hulda
exhibited the doll in all its beautiful clothes for
the last time. When dawn broke - I was quite drunk,
as was everyone else - I beheaded it out in the garden
and broke a bottle-of red wine over its head.”
... read more
about "The Puppet"
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Above: The Puppet
Right: Oskar Kokoschka:
Girl with Doll (1921/22) |
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