“A PASSIONATE COLLECTOR”

03.03.2025

100TH BIRTHDAY OF RUDOLF LEOPOLD (1925–2010)

The Directors of the Leopold Museum and the board of directors of the Leopold Museum Private Foundation commemorate the museum’s founder and collector Prof. Rudolf Leopold on what would have been his 100th birthday. The “passionate collector” was born on 1st March 1925, exactly one hundred years ago, in Vienna. From the late 1950s to the mid-1990s, Rudolf Leopold compiled more than 5,200 artworks, which he brought into the Leopold Museum Private Foundation, established in 1994 with support from the Republic of Austria and the Austrian National Bank. This was followed in 2001 by the opening of the Leopold Museum, built especially for the collection, in Vienna’s MuseumsQuartier, representing the culmination of the passionate art enthusiast’s ardent efforts.

“The Leopold Museum, a collector’s museum par excellence, is among the most eminent European museums and occupies a key position in Austria’s cultural landscape. Rudolf Leopold’s wife Elisabeth (1926-2024), who this year would have celebrated her 99th birthday, was always by her husband’s side, supported his collecting activities with great commitment and, with her work as an art educator, curator and author, tirelessly continued to shape the museum beyond his death.”

Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Director of the Leopold Museum

Success Story: One of the Most Eminent Collections of Austrian Art

The Leopold Museum is home to one of the most important collections of Austrian art of the 19th and 20th centuries, which by now has grown to around 8,800 works and a large number of permanent loans. The success story of the Leopold Museum, which has been around for nearly 25 years and has provided the venue for some 130 exhibitions to date, is illustrated not least by the great interest of museum-goers – approximately 9 million people have visited the museum since its inception.

Emphases on Schiele and Viennese Modernism

The Leopold Museum’s emphasis is on the permanent presentation Vienna 1900. Birth of Modernism which includes the world’s largest collection of works by Egon Schiele, masterpieces by Gustav Klimt, artisanal objects of the Wiener Werkstätte with extensive work complexes by Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, as well as the most comprehensive permanent displays of works by the Expressionists Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl.

Aside from exhibitions shown at the museum, the Leopold Museum also sees itself as a cultural ambassador of Austrian art abroad. Most recently, highly successful presentations of the collections, featuring works by artists of Viennese Modernism, were realized at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum (Egon Schiele from the Collection of the Leopold Museum – Young Genius in Vienna 1900) in 2023, as well as currently (until 3rd March) at the National Museum of Korea in Seoul (Vienna 1900: The Dreaming Artists – From Gustav Klimt to Egon Schiele. The Leopold Museum Collection).

Two Lives Dedicated to Art. Matinee in Remembrance of Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold

Honoring the achievements of Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold, a matinee concert will be held at the Leopold Museum on Sunday, 2nd March, at 11 am, with opening remarks delivered by the Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Rudolf Leopold’s younger son Diethard Leopold. Titled “Two Lives Dedicated to Art”, the matinee in commemoration of the collectors Rudolf and Elisabeth Leopold will take place on level -2, at the museum’s lower atrium. The cellist Rudolf Leopold, the older son of Prof. Leopold, will play Anton Bruckner’s String Quartet in C Minor and Franz Schubert’s String Quartet in D Minor “Death and the Maiden” together with Maria Kubizek (violin), Marta Potuska (viola) and Markus Hoffmann (violin). Egon Schiele dedicated his famous painting Death and the Maiden (1915) to this very theme. The concert can be attended for free with a valid museum ticket.

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