Vienna Secession: Koloman Moser
Field Solitude (Feldeinsamkeit), 1912/13
Oil on canvas
Two parts; overall: 129 × 122 cm; upper part: 99 × 122 cm; lower part: 30 × 122 cm
Auctioned at im Kinsky in 2020 for €750,000 (Gross price: €940,000)

Painted in 1912/13, Field Solitude documents the late phase of Koloman Moser’s career. During these years, his focus shifted away from the graphic, ornamental style of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte toward a painterly form of Symbolism. The composition is structured across two separate canvases. The large upper panel contains a drifting male nude, while the narrow lower register establishes a flat horizon line. This physical separation introduces a structural divide between the floating subject and the ground below.

The connection to Swiss Symbolist Ferdinand Hodler is central to the visual organization of this work. Moser met Hodler in 1913, an encounter that fundamentally changed his approach to the human form. The vertical curve of the nude, the symmetrical composition, and the stylized pose directly reflect Hodler’s principle of parallelism—the idea that repetition and symmetry in nature express a higher spiritual order. Additionally, the luminous, glowing contour that defines the body’s edge serves as a formal device adapted from Hodler to separate the figure from the surrounding air.

However, Moser modifies Hodler’s strict linear sharpness by softening the outlines into the surrounding cloudbank. The color temperature transitions from the warm amber tones of the skin to the cool greens and blues of the sky, ending in the pale, pastel horizon of the lower canvas. This combination of structural alignment and atmospheric blending defines his late technique. Both canvases retain their original estate stamps (Nachlass) and inventory numbers on the stretchers, verifying their direct passage from Moser’s studio.

The early exhibition history documents the shifting interpretation of this artwork. It was exhibited at the Berlin Secession in 1916, where critic Franz Servaes praised and illustrated it full-page in the magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration. In the 1920 estate exhibition held at Kunstverlag Wolfrum in Vienna, the work appeared under the title Abend (Knabenakt in Wolken). When it appeared at Dorotheum several times during the mid-1920s, it was cataloged under various titles, including Der Träumer.

The provenance follows a verified line from the artist’s estate, managed by his heirs Editha Hauska, Karl Moser, and Dietrich Moser in Vienna. Long considered lost by art historians, the work resurfaced in June 2020 at the im Kinsky auction house in Vienna.