Chasing a Painting

I am no art connoisseur – most of the things that come out of my mouth could be described as abstract at best – but I still remember the moment I saw the Egon Schiele painting, and what it prompted me to do.

It was hanging in the Leopold Gallery in Vienna, and I can’t say what drew me in. Perhaps it was the tones of greys, blacks, and oranges? Or the ramshackle buildings balancing precariously on the winding river bank? Or my empty stomach? Either way a potent cocktail of feelings caused me much discomfort as I was standing there. How could I be enamoured by a painting that made me feel so melancholy?

It definitely required further investigation, so I said to my sister, “Hey, isn’t that pretty? We should go there”. When you are an Australian living in Austria, you find that nothing is ever “far” away.

Three days later we were chugging through Bohemia on a dilapidated, one carriage train towards Cesky Krumlov, the town in the painting. I had given no thought as to where we were going to stay, but suggested to my sister that we shouldn’t take the first place we saw. So we took the first place we saw.

Cesky Krumlov was a little different to what it was in the painting – maybe because the sun was shining and it wasn’t 1913 – but oh my, it was the most beautiful UNESCO listed medieval town I have ever seen. As we walked around, scoffing traditional Czech food and guzzling delicious lager, I could imagine the clip-clopping of horses hooves, knights in some awesome metrosexual get-up and maidens that were more morally sound than me.

As Egon was the motivation for the trip, we spent an afternoon (between plates of sausage, cabbages and dumplings) in the Egon Schiele museum, and formed an understanding of his short life and work. It is no wonder his paintings are so bleak. He was kicked out of town for painting young models, went to war, and later on married one of Gustav Klimt’s mistresses, who died when she was six months pregnant from Spanish Influenza. He followed soon after.

To replicate the trip you would need to make your way from Vienna to Cesky Krumlov. Just a tip though, when you change trains between Prague and Cesky Krumlov at Cesky Budejovice, beware that there are two trains on the platform heading in different directions. The small one goes to Cesky Krumlov. If you don't realise this, you may accidentally leave your travel companion on the wrong train with no money.