Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

NEW YORK, NY.- At The Met Breuer this summer, the exhibition Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection presents a selection from The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Scofield Thayer Collection of some 50 erotic and evocative watercolors, drawings, and prints by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Pablo Picasso, whose subjects, except for a handful, are nudes. The exhibition provides a focused look at this important collection and marks the first time this brilliant group of works are being shown together; it also marks the centenary of the death of Klimt and Schiele. 

An aesthete and scion of a wealthy family, Scofield Thayer (1889–1982) was co-publisher and editor of the literary magazine the Dial from 1919 to 1926. In this avant-garde journal he introduced Americans to the writings of T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, D.H. Lawrence, Arthur Schnitzler, Thomas Mann, and Marcel Proust, among others. He frequently accompanied these writers’ contributions with reproductions of modern art. Thayer assembled his large collection of some 600 works—mostly works on paper—with staggering speed in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna between 1921 and 1923. While he was a patient of Sigmund Freud in Vienna, he acquired a large group of watercolors and drawings by Schiele and Klimt, artists who at that time were unknown in America. When a selection from his collection was shown at the Montross Gallery in New York in 1924—five years before the Museum of Modern Art opened—it won acclaim. It found no favor, however, in Thayer’s native city, Worcester, Massachusetts, that same year when it was shown at the Worcester Art Museum. Incensed, Thayer draw up his will in 1925 leaving his collection to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. He withdrew from public life in the late 1920s and lived as a recluse on Martha’s Vineyard and in Florida until his death in 1982. 

Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection is organized by Sabine Rewald, the Jacquesand Natasha Gelman Curator for Modern Art in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue published by The Met. An essay by James Dempsey, instructor at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an authority on Scofield Thayer, discusses the collector’s professional and private life. In her essay, Sabine Rewald discusses in depth the works of the three artists and also examines Thayer’s purchases between 1921 and 1923, as documented in invoices.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, Baumgarten 1862–1918 Vienna), Reclining Nude with Outstretched Left Arm, 1903–1904. Graphite. Sheet: 13 7/8 × 21 1/2 in. (35.2 × 54.6 cm). Frame: 23 × 29 × 1 1/2 in. (58.4 × 73.7 × 3.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.192).

Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Standing Nude with Orange Drapery, 1914. Watercolor, gouache, and graphite on paper, 18 3/8 x 12 in. (46.7 x 30.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.315ab).

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Youth in an Archway, 1906, Conté crayon on paper, 23 1/4 x 16 3/4 in. (59.1 x 42.5 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.273). © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, Baumgarten 1862–1918 Vienna), Standing Nude, 1906–1907. Graphite. Sheet: 22 3/8 × 14 3/4 in. (56.8 × 37.5 cm). Frame: 29 1/4 × 23 1/4 × 1 in. (74.3 × 59.1 × 2.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.193a, b).

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, Baumgarten 1862–1918 Vienna), Two Reclining Nudes, 1905–1906. Coored pencil. Sheet: 5 3/8 × 8 9/16 in. (13.6 × 21.8 cm). Frame: 23 × 29 × 1 1/2 in. (58.4 × 73.7 × 3.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.194).

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, Baumgarten 1862–1918 Vienna), Two Studies for a Crouching Woman, 1914–1915. Graphite. Sheet: 21 1/2 × 13 7/8 in. (54.6 × 35.2 cm). Frame: 29 × 23 × 1 1/2 in. (73.7 × 58.4 × 3.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.195).

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, Baumgarten 1862–1918 Vienna), Reclining Nude with Drapery, Back View, 1917-1918. Graphite. Sheet: 14 5/8 × 22 3/8 in. (37.1 × 56.8 cm). Frame: 23 × 29 × 1 1/2 in. (58.4 × 73.7 × 3.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.196).

Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Two Reclining Nudes, 1911. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 22 1/4 x 14 1/2 in. (56.5 x 36.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.309).

Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Crouching Nude in Shoes and Black Stockings, Back View, 1912. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 19 in. × 12 3/4 in. (48.3 × 32.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.297).

Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Standing Nude in Black Stockings, 1917. Watercolor and charcoal on paper, 18 1/8 x 11 5/8 in. (46 x 29.5 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.316).

 Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890–1918), Self-Portrait, 1911. Watercolor,gouache and graphite on paper, 20 1/4 x 13 3/4 in. (51.4 x 34.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.298ab)

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Erotic Scene (La Douceur), 1903, Oil on canvas, 27 5/8 x 21 7/8 in. (70.2 x 55.6 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.22). © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Three Bathers by the Sea, 1902, Graphite on paper, 19 3/8 x 25 1/4 in. (49.2 x 64.1 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.277). © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Head of a Woman, 1922, Chalk on paper, 42 3/8 x 28 3/8 in. (107.6 x 72.1 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.433.76). © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

 Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Josep Fondevila, 1906, Oil on canvas, 17 3/4 x 15 7/8 in. (45.1 x 40.3 cm), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Florene M. Schoenborn, 1992 (1992.37). © 2018 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.