Vienna has at least 112 museums which is for me why it is such a intimidating place to visit. Today we focused on one of the most famous ones the Leopold Museum which is in the Museum Quarter that contains several other large and small museums.
Before heading to the museum for the afternoon we spent the morning on a driving tour of Vienna. We wanted to get a look at other parts of Vienna to determine where to spend tomorrow. The drive was interesting and we saw both the old and new parts of Vienna.
After our driving tour we headed to another cafe to try to break our streak of ok food. Today was much better, our coffee was delicious, and the pastries we ordered- the restaurants specialty cake, and a cheese strudel were also excellent. Happy with our choice we headed to the Leopold Museum.
Ton is a big fan of the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt and this museum has several of his works on display. The museum focuses on Austrian art from the late 1880’s to the beginning of WWII.
Ton is a huge fan of the Kiss which is displayed at a museum we will be visiting tomorrow. But the Leopold had a lot of information about Klimt and the Kiss including some stills of the model he used for the painting that we studied in preparation for visiting it tomorrow.
I ended up falling under the spell of an architect and industrial designer named Joseph Hoffman. They had several rooms highlighting furniture and other household goods that were designed and produced in Vienna around 1900. In each of the rooms we entered there was always one piece that caught my eye and pulled me to it, and while there were several designers on display, in each case the piece I was drawn to (and Ton also) was designed by Joseph Hoffman.
The period from 1900 until WWI was particular striking for me. The artists were quite daring for their time. They were ahead of popular tastes for the era, and in the 1930’s many of them were branded as degenerate by the Nazi’s.
It was a wonderful collection of art, and we thoroughly enjoyed wandering thru the well laid out presentations. We had planned on going to another museum but when we were done with the Leopold it was too late, so the Albertina will be on tomorrows agenda.
We have our commute from the campground to the center of the city down now. After a quick trip back to the campsite Ton prepared another great meal and we settled in for the evening on a warm(ish) night.
