Lesende. Um 1921.
Watercolor and gouache.
Signed in lower left. On off-white laid paper. 48 x 65.6 cm (18.8 x 25.8 in), the full sheet. [CH].

• Large-size drawing with a scene from the artist's private environment, masterly composed of single color fields without contours.
• From the acclaimed Serge Sabarsky Collection.
• With a long international exhibition history.
• Kokoschka transfers the art-historical motif of the reader into his very own expressive pictorial language.
• In 1922, Kokoschka showed several works in the German Pavilion at the 13th Venice Biennale.

PROVENANCE: Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York.
Serge Sabarsky Collection (1912-1996), New York (acquired in 1980).
Serge Sabarsky Estate, New York (1996).
Vally Sabarsky Collection (1909-2002), New York.
Vally Sabarsky Foundation, New York.

EXHIBITION: Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre (Zeichnungen und Aquarelle), Historisches Museum, Wien, December 2, 1982 - January 1, 1983; Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover, February 4 - April 4, 1983; Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, April 7 - May 24, 1983; Neue Galerie, Linz, May 31 - July 17, 1983; Salzburger Museum Carolino Augusteum, Salzburg, July 22 - September 4, 1983, cat. no. 79.
Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele (Zeichnungen und Aquarelle), Salle Saint-Jean, Hôtel de Ville, Paris, June 13 - August 12, 1984; Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, August 31 - October 14, 1984; Palazzo Reale, Turin, December 5, 1984 - February 16, 1985, cat. no. 57.
Oskar Kokoschka. The Early Years 1907-1924, Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, December 1985 to January 1986, cat. no. 34, p. 72 (with color illu., p. 73).
Oskar Kokoschka. Dipinti e disegni, Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, Florence, April 4 - June 7, 1987; Palazzo del Turismo, Riccione, June 20 - August 16, 1987, cat. no. 51.
Europalia 87 Austria. Oskar Kokoschka, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Gent, September 17 - November 8, 1987; Salle Saint-Georges, Liège, November 14 - December 31, 1987, cat. no. 89.
Oskar Kokoschka 1886-1980, Museu Picasso, Barcelona, February 9 - April 10, 1988.
Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre, Josef Albers Museum, Quadrat Bottrop, August 21 - October 9, 1988; Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, March 12 - April 16, 1989.
Gustav Klimt 1862-1918, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn (NY), June 2 - October 14, 1989.
Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre, BAWAG Fondation, Vienna, October 15 - November 28, 1992.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Paul Klee & Oskar Kokoschka (Watercolors and Drawings), Tel Aviv Museum of Art, November 10, 1993 - January 13, 1994.
Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre, Ulmer Museum, June 12 - August 14, 1994, cat. no. 42.
Oskar Kokoschka. Wczesne lata, Miedzynarodowe Centrum Kultury, Cracow, Ocotber 6 - November 27, 1994; Gornoslaska Macierz Kultury, Katowice, December 19, 1994 - January 29, 1995, cat. no. 50.
Klimt - Schiele - Kokoschka, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, May 20 - August 14, 1995, cat. no. 111.
Oskar Kokoschka, Oskar Kokoschka Galerie, Prague, November 28, 1996 - February 14, 1997.
Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre, Städtische Galerie, Klagenfurt, February 19 - May 11, 1997, cat. no. 40.
Oskar Kokoschka. Vienna - Prague (Oil paintings, Watercolors, Drawings), Mezinárodní kulturní centrum Egona Schieleho, Ceský Krumlov, May 23 - October 28, 1997.
Visual Weimar, Middlebury College Museum of Art, Middlebury (Vermont), September 2 - December 7, 2014.

LITERATURE: Christie's, New York, Auction of Impressionist and Modern Drawings & Watercolors, May 14, 1980, lot 35, p. 36 (with black-and-white illu.).
Serge Sabarsky (ed.), Oskar Kokoschka. Drawings and watercolors 1906-1924, New York 1986, cat. no. 76 (with color illu.).
Serge Sabarsky (ed.), Oskar Kokoschka. Die frühen Jahre: 1906-1926. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, Stuttgart 1986, cat. no. 67 (with color illu.).