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