(Vienna 1868–1918)
“Tobias”, draft for the left side window (glass window) for the Church “Kirche am Steinhof”, c. 1905, stamp: “Nachlass Koloman Moser”, pencil, pen, brush, ink, gouache, opaque white, pencil grid on thin Japan paper, sight area approx. 29 x 9.5 cm, sheet size 42 x 30.5 cm, framed

Compare:
Koloman Moser 1868–1918, Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Vienna, Prestel Verlag, 2007, p. 255- ill. 9
Kirche Am Steinhof, figure “Tobias” ...

Provenance:
Private Collection, USA
Dorotheum Vienna, 28 November 2006, lot 19
Private Collection, Vienna

THE STEINHOF CHURCH

On 18 October 1904, Wagner’s design for the Church of St Leopold at the Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital was approved for execution. The design, which developed from the project entered for competition in 1902, had been modified to take on board points of criticism at the beginning of 1903.
Ground was broken on 6 June 1905, and on 5 October 1907 the church was opened […].
The Steinhof Church was the realisation of Wagner’s concept of a contemporary church, that he had previously formulated in his 1899 study Die Moderne im Kirchenbau (Contemporary ecclesiastical architecture). This study, which particularly highlights practical aspects of church design, along with a project for a church in the Währing Cemetery, were displayed at the 5th Exhibition of the Vienna Secession, but these ideas encountered heavy contemporary criticism.
“What?”, cried the eternal naysayers, “an airy, light, sanitary, fit for purpose building, that is actually comfortable, that actually has toilet facilities (!), is this supposed to be a church? And built from such profane materials: reinforced concrete, copper, glass, thin marble panel cladding; … this is not a liturgical setting, Mass cannot be held here.
”Such a church could apparently only be approved of as an exception to the rule, as a church for the mentally ill. Only here, it seemed, could Wagner’s functional demands around hygiene, economy, and smooth usability find a home. There was nonetheless great scepticism on the part of the church authorities, who were represented on the construction committee by the court chaplain and university professor Heinrich Swoboda in an advisory capacity. As the design of the church had no liturgical weak points, Swoboda concentrated his criticism on the stylistic innovation and construction materials of the pictorial scheme for the church interior. Wagner complained about this to Kolo Moser, whom he had commissioned to design the stained glass windows and the altarpiece:
“Given that Professor Swodoba could not come at any single point from a liturgical perspective, he naturally belaboured things from an artistic point of view, and what emerges from this, and what I must endure, you cannot imagine.” […]
The stained glass windows, which had likely been conceived of with even less colour, were indeed created according to Kolo Moser’s designs despite heated disputes, but the rejection of his altarpiece led to Moser withdrawing from the project. “Please! – let your dream of a unified work of art go,” Moser wrote to Wagner on 18 February 1907. […]
From: Otto Wagner, Möbel und Innenräume, Residenz Verlag 1984, pp. 240-241 (see also pp. 242-245)
Cf: Werner Feuz, Koloman Moser, Residenz Verlag, 1984, p. 202, ill. 114
Maria Rennhofer, Koloman Moser, Leben und Werk 1868-1918, Verlag Christian Brandstätter, 2002, pp. 160-164
Koloman Moser 1868-1918, Leopold Museum Privatstiftung, Vienna, Prestel Verlag, 2007, pp. 255-258