Liliana Amon

Austrian writer and muse, nicknamed "Bibiana," who served as a model for the artist Egon Schiele and was portrayed in literature by Robert Musil and Franz Werfel. She was also known by her married names Leithoff and Schwab.

The illegitimate child of the seamstress Caecilia Brandstetter (born 17 June 1869) and the tailor Josef Amon (born 22 May 1843 in Klagenfurt), she was baptized on 24 June in the Linz parish of St. Josef (today: Heilige Familie/ Holy Family). On 19 June 1897, she was “legitimized,” meaning that the father had himself entered in the baptismal register as the father.

From 1909 at the latest she lived in Vienna, where she stated the following professions on the registration forms: “painter”, “business student”, “correspondent” and “singer”. In 1909 she worked as a model for Egon Schiele in his studio on Alserbachstrasse in the 9th district. On 9 August 1910, she gave birth to a daughter in the Lower Austrian maternity hospital, whom she named Liliana Marie and who was put up for adoption. The facts compiled by Walter Schübler indicate that Schiele was not the father. But Amon may have been the model for the drawings of a pregnant woman - the so-called “gynaecological watercolours”.

Liliana Amon occasionally frequented Viennese coffee houses and was involved at the regulars' table at Café Herrenhof. This brought her the acquaintance of Ernst Polak, Milena Jesenská, Gina Kaus, Otto Gross, Muhammad Asad, Albert Ehrenstein, Otto Soyka, Peter Altenberg and Franz Werfel. She was engaged to Anton Kuh for a time - he called her “the radiant one” and gave himself ten commandments with which he hoped to secure her attention.

Robert Musil may have used her as a model for Alpha in Vincent and the Girlfriend of Important Men (1924). In Karl Tschuppik's autobiographical novel A Son from a Good Home (1937) she appears as 'Bibi'. In Franz Werfel's novel Barbara or the Piety (1929) she is described as 'Angelika'.