Oskar Kokoschka's Effigy of Alma Mahler, 1919


In 1919, artist Oskar Kokoschka commissioned doll maker Hermione Moos to create a life-sized effigy of his former lover Alma Mahler, widow of composer Gustav Mahler and one of the most pursued and celebrated women in Vienna. Despite being unhappy with the results. he painted and photographed the doll many times, and took it out as his companion to the theater and restaurants. Eventually, he ceremonially doused it in red wine and beheaded at a party.

Learn more this--and much more!--in the new Morbid Anatomy Thames and Hudson / Artbook / D.A.P. book "The Anatomical Venus," out at the end of May!

More can be found here. It can be pre-ordered in the USA here, and here for the rest of the world. 

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