Harry Graf Kessler

Harry Graf Kessler was one of the most remarkable cultural impresarios of early twentieth-century Europe — a German-English aristocrat who knew Rodin, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, and Nietzsche, who commissioned van de Velde to redesign the Weimar Museum of Art and Crafts, and who would later publish his famous diaries. Munch painted Kessler's portrait in 1904 during his extended time in Germany; the two men moved in the same cultural circles of Weimar and Berlin, and Kessler's cosmopolitan intellectualism and social grace made him an ideal subject for the kind of psychologically penetrating portrait Munch excelled at. The current location of this portrait is untraced or in private hands.

Munch brings his full portrait intensity to Kessler, rendering the Count's alert, intelligent face with the psychological acuity he reserved for sitters who interested him. The handling is fluid and direct, with the background kept simple to prevent distraction from the face's complex expressiveness.