Freund, wie Sie einer sind!" In the event, Gegen
Klimt and the repercussions of the scandal over
the University paintings even reached as far afield
as Glasgow. In a further note dated 28 November
1903 Waerndorter quotes from a letter he has
received from Charles and Margaret Mackintosh:
"Keine Ausstellung wird Klimt jemals so freuen,
wie die Huldigung seiner Secessions-Collegen in
der jetzigen Gesamtausstellung seiner Werke,
und wie das Antreten Bahrs in dem rare fine
book."
What Waerndorfer may have owned in the way 0T
Klimt drawings one can only guess, since his col-
lections are now dispersed and many items im-
possible to trace. Ludwig Hevesi, who reported on
4
34
a visit to the Waerndorfer house in November
1905, described drawers and cases full of draw-
ings, sketchbooks and other documents by vari-
ous artistsß However, from an examination ot
letters, phctographs and descriptions ol the
house it is possible partially to reconstruct the de-
tails ot his collection of paintings which, by the
early1900s, included some of Klimt's most impor-
tanl early works, such as Pallas Athene (D93),
Obstgarten am Abend (D106), Stille Weiher im
Schloßpark von Kammer (D108) and Bauernhaus
mit Birken (D110) (fig. 4, 5)." Waerndorter also sigv
nalled his admiration for Klimt by buying one of
the artist's most controversial paintings, Die Hoff-
nung I, which shows in profile the naked figure of
a pregnant young woman. Visitors to the W:
dorfer house like Ludwig Hevesi and Helga M
berg recorded that the painting was kept in a
of shrine, behind closed doors designed by
Moser. The artistic delights of Waerndorfefs
lections, as Hevesi observed, were not for "l
sier aus Philistäa oder sonstigem Mittel:
pa.""'
As tor the rest of Waerndorters collections, l
of the principal Secessionisrs were represei
among then, Hoffmann, Kolo Moser, Ric
Luksch and Marcus Behmer. Waerndorfer Ot
a Iarge number of graphic works by Moser
Behmer, both of whom made him designs fr
Ex Libris." Ot the "corresponding member:
the Secession, he possessed a fine collectic
24 drawings and some 150 letters by ÄL
Beardsley, purchased on frequent trips to Lor
including the famous "last letter" "in my c
agony" in which the artist conjured his publ
Leonard Smithers to destroy all obscene t
ings, in the pious hope that he, Beardsley, n
yet save his immortal soulJZ Waerndorfer h:
so amassed a remarkable group of works b'
Belgian sculptor Georges Minne (fig. 5), anl
artist who, like Beardsley, was greatly admirr
the Vienna Secessionists, including the smal
dello for Minne's monument to the Symt
poet Georges Rodenbach. In a letter of 5 Jar
1903 tn Hermann Bahr, Waerndorfer excuseo
self for boasting about the Rodenbach sculp
but added: "Was ich alles in Marmor von lv
habe, sag' ich Ihnen gar nicht." He also lfil
persuade Bahr to buy works by Minne, poii
out the still relatively low prices.
T0 judge by his collections, at least in these
years, Waerndorfer might be thought to
follower rather than a leader ot fashion. Cert:
in the beginning his taste and inclinations fc
ed closely those reflected in the early Sece:
exhibitions. He himself acknowledged that,
out the example of the Secession, his own ar
horizons would have been narrower. In Dece
1902 he wrote to Hoffmann: "Wenn ich mir sc
ne Sachen manchmal anschau' kommt's mi
wie wenn die ganze Secession nur für micl
gründet worden wäre. Meine zwei Freunde,
Wiener Specilels, habe ich durch die Sec., ..
Minne hätte ich keinen Dunst ohne Euch,
kurz ich komme mir vor, wie ein an Eurem Fe
mästetes Schwein. Macht aber nix?"
In retrospect, however, Waerndorfefs own jx
ment on himself seems unduly harsh, espel
when one considers the achievements of his