Obsession

Evocative and often highly erotic works on paper by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Pablo Picasso are presented along with new details about Scofield Thayer (1889-1982), the unusual and complicated man who collected them. Thayer was a wealthy publisher, poet, and aesthete who led an intense public life that included the editorship of the prominent literary journal The Dial and friendships with literary luminaries such as e. e. cummings. In the 1920s, Thayer went on an art-buying spree in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, acquiring approximately 600 works of art. Among these are particularly provocative drawings and watercolors by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso, at a time when these works were little known or appreciated. This book showcases 52 of the rarely seen works – which have now taken their place as modernist erotic masterpieces – and presents them within the context of the collector's remarkable life and tempestuous times.