as a young artist, to the so-called Schoenberg Circle. His proximity to the Viennese avant-garde was appreciable. His works were rediscovered in the early 1930s, and their significance was recognized after 1945. Nevertheless, to this day little is known of this representative of the Austrian Expressionists. Sixty of his paintings and 8 drawings, most of which are in the Leopold Museum and the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, are known to be extant. Alois Gerstl, brother of Richard, found canvases and sketches in the artist's atelier, which he left for many years with a forwarding agent. Ultimately, thirty-four paintings were saved from destruction by Otto Kallir, a gallery owner. Kallir bought and restored the paintings, and his 1931 exhibition Richard Gerstl -- A Painter's Destiny caused quite a stir. The exhibition would later appear in Munich, Berlin, and Aachen. He became a key figure for the Austrian art scene, inspiring artists of the post-war era, even still in the time of Viennese Actionism. Since the 1980s, with the inclusion of his work in exhibitions of art from turn-of-the-century Vienna, Gerstl has been recognized in the canon of art history. The Kamm Collection (Stiftung Sammlung Kamm) of the art gallery Kunsthaus Zug in Zug, Switzerland possesses ten of Gerstl's paintings on eight canvases. They include landscapes and a variety of portraits. Arnold Schoenberg Although Gerstl did not associate with other artists, he did feel drawn to the musically inclined; he himself frequented concerts in Vienna. Around 1907, he began to associate with composers Arnold Schoenberg and Alexander von Zemlinsky, who lived in the same building at the time. Gerstl and Schoenberg developed a mutual admiration based upon their individual talents. Gerstl apparently instructed Schoenberg in art. During this time, Gerstl moved into a flat in the same house and painted several portraits of Schoenberg, his family, and his friends. These portraits also included paintings of Schoenberg's wife Mathilde, Alban Berg and Zemlinsky. His highly stylized heads anticipated German expressionism and used pastels as in the works by Oskar Kokoschka. Gerstl and Mathilde (who was six years his senior) became extremely close and, in the summer of 1908, she left her husband and children to travel to Vienna with Gerstl. Schoenberg was in the midst of composing his Second String Quartet, which he dedicated to her. Mathilde rejoined her husband in October. Distraught by the loss of Mathilde, his isolation from his associates, and