Wednesday 27th April 2022

Harry Rollo and Mercury Mr Kitten were in a suite at the Imperial. First of all they were in the Royal Suite but that suddenly developed a structural problem so they were ‘upgraded’ to the Imperial Suite in the Imperial Hotel.  The ‘structural’ problem, Harry said, was most likely that the Royal Suite was required by staggering Royalty of some kind. The names had been switched round to placate. The Imperial Suite could not fail to give pleasure all the same, with its massive bed presented as a throne and a suite of gruelling Imperial furniture organised below it where Harry had received people like Bartok and Kodaly. Every door in the suite opened to a bathroom. The Hotel Imperial had been built as a palace for the Duchess of Wurtemberg but she did not care for it. Too dusty from the Ring Strasse outside.

This was in Vienna. Anthony Mottram and I were entrained by special 1st class train from Prague. But O! the arrival in Vienna. A terrible scene. The population gagged and loving it. Despite their polished chrome and glass setting, their luxe, when not yards and yards of Imperial building… We were back in the Altstadt, as before, even the same room for me, with Anthony Mottram in Reggie Cresswell’s old accommodation. But the nonsense in the breakfast room, with requirements at the buffet but not when sitting down. How can a bourgeois put up with it? How would you ever become bourgeois if you believed in such rituals?

Harry gave two performances in Vienna at the highest conceivable level. It was the same performance given twice but different, of course. Others performed with Harry but they were not free from his direction although incredibly dynamic with a massive wooden hammer. The work Harry had devised is as great as any known previously in the whole history of performance. It is shattering but good for one.

So we were at the core. Backstage at the performance venue…Unfortunately only ticketed with the general for the Belvedere where two paintings picked out by Reggie Cresswell on our previous visit had apparently disappeared from view.

You couldn’t be at the Belvedere for very long because of the requirement not to breathe. On exit I was near collapse and could have become a burden to the Austrian Health Authorities.

Otherwise we went to look at the outside of the Ephrussi mansion where the Ephrussis lived with those awful netsuki. It’s got a plaque outside referring to the book, ‘The Hare with Amber Eyes’ – which one has read, would you believe it.

New Artist for Me: Richard Gerstl: the Sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey. Great Painting

The Belvedere, Vienna. A Munch of Some Mates of HIs. Unusual

The Belvedere, Vienna. Klimt’s Idea of a Sunflower

Schiele’s Idea of a Sunflower. His Painting of the Boy in Red NOT on view

A Monet Portrait: Rare. What do you Think?

Horse at Death Bed. Helpful

NOT ON VIEW NOW This is ‘Large Landscape in the Prater’ by Ferdinand Georg Waldmülller 1849, Another Rare Artist Highlighted by Reggie Cresswell. It Appears to be a Photograph but Isn’t

NOT ON VIEW NOW This is by Francois Gérard. The Husband Seems Rather Vain and the Wife is Struggling with her Adoration. There’s an Interesting Trajectory between his Area of Reproduction and the Consequent Baby

NOWHERE TO BE SEEN NOW This is a Schiele of a Child: Not Quite What the Parents were Expecting, I Imagine.

Backers at Harry’s Perf Venue. Glamour’s Lack..

Interior at the Hotel Alstadt Vienna. The Great Liver Corridor, as Named by Anthony Mottram

The Ephrussi Palace, Vienna, once full of Ephrussi and their Ghastly Nesuke. Very much on the Street, as you can See