ProvenioArt Intelligence
Sign InExplore
polity austro hungarian empireconcept:era modern

The Bride of the Wind

Oil on canvas (1914) by Oskar Kokoschka. Depicts two figures — a man and a woman — lying entwined in a swirling, turbulent nocturnal seascape. Encodes Kokoschka's passionate and doomed relationship with Alma Mahler (widow of composer Gustav Mahler). The title comes from Goethe's poem 'The Erlking.' Also known as 'The Tempest.'

Scholarly Significance

Kokoschka's most famous work, encoding his relationship with Alma Mahler in a turbulent nocturnal seascape. A central work of German/Austrian Expressionism.

Notes

  • ·Painted at the height of Kokoschka's relationship with Alma Mahler (1912–1915).
  • ·The title 'Die Windsbraut' (Bride of the Wind) alludes to the storm spirit; also called 'Die Windsbraut' after a concept in German Romanticism.
  • ·The man (Kokoschka) is awake and tormented; the woman (Alma) is calm and asleep — expressing the asymmetry of the relationship.
  • ·The swirling blues and whites of the painting were compared by the artist to Schubert's Winterreise in their emotional register.
  • ·Alma Mahler ended the relationship in 1915 when she married the architect Walter Gropius (later founder of the Bauhaus).
  • ·Kokoschka was reportedly devastated; he enlisted in WWI, was seriously wounded, and later had a life-size doll made in Alma's likeness.
  • ·Acquired by the Kunstmuseum Basel; considered one of the masterworks of European Expressionism.