The inner man: Interiors and masculinity in early twentieth-century Vienna

This essay argues that urban interiors as much as the city's streets were c rucial to the process of Selbstdarstellung [self-representation] in early t wentieth century Vienna. Carl Moll's (1861-1945) 'Self Portrait in the Stud io' (c.1906 Gemaldegalerie, Akademie der bildenen Kunste, Vienna) is contra sted with photographs of the poet Peter Altenberg's (1859-1919) room at the Hotel Graben as images of the male artist 'at home' in order to reflect on what is often characterized as a specifically Viennese retreat to the inte rior.