Riegl's concern for suspending isolation without destroying independence is still evident today. The notion of beholding has been important in the visual arts. Even in the nineteenth century, Riegl's statement that modern paintings do not look at the viewer was not true of all paintings. In the twentieth century, however, it is fair to say that the situation of beholding became an artistic issue. Ruisdael's houses may or may not permit themselves to be read as faces. Those of Gustav Klimt, however, are easy to interpret as imitations of the coyly beholding faces in some of his portraits. Egon Schiele's Windows are more brazen than those of Klimt, but the effect of beholding is similar.
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| Gustav Klimt, Woman with Hat and Feather Boa, 1909. Vienna |
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| Gustav Klimt, Upper Austrian Farmhouse, 1911-12. Vienna |
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| Egon Schiele, Windows, 1914. Vienna |