O. Kokoschka The prometheus Triptich /Londres

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/current/exhibitions.html

"The Prometheus Triptych, the most important painting by Oskar Kokoschka in the United Kingdom, will be exhibited for the first time in over a decade. It was commissioned in 1950 by Count Antoine Seilern for the ceiling of his London house at 56 Princes Gate.  After his death, the Count bequeathed the triptych, together with his remarkable collection of Old Master paintings, to be displayed at the Courtauld Institute of Art.  Prometheus was rarely seen in public during Seilern’s lifetime and because of its enormous size – the three canvases together measure over eight metres wide – it has only been possible to show the work infrequently since his death.  However the artist’s fears for the future of his painting, which he thought would be abandoned and misunderstood by “a despicable contemporary world”, have not been realised.

Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980) and Count Seilern (1901-1978) were both emigrés in London having left their native Austria during the 1930s as the shadow of war loomed over Europe.  Both were well-known figures in the Viennese art world and Kokoschka had made his reputation earlier in the century as one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the Vienna Secession alongside Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele.  Seilern bought a number of Kokoschka’s works during the war but the idea of commissioning a ceiling painting only came in 1949.  This represented a major commitment to Kokoshka who was the only contemporary artist whose work formed a significant part of Seilern’s collection. Seilern devoted an entire room in Princes Gate to Kokoschka’s paintings."