Egon Schiele
(Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)
Porträt eines Soldaten (Portrait of a soldier), signed and dated EGON SCHIELE 1916, gouache, watercolour and black crayon on paper, 46 x 30 cm
We are grateful to Jane Kallir for confirming the authenticity of this work in original. It will be included in the work catalogue under the number D841a.
Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna (for three generations)
Compare:
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele. The complete works, New York 1998, p. 564, cat. rais. nos. 1839, 1851.
The nearly two years of military service, particularly in the military supply office of the Mühling prisoner-of-war camp near Wieselburg in Lower Austria in 1916, compelled Egon Schiele to adapt to unfamiliar circumstances and to reorient his artistic focus towards portraits of army superiors, comrades, and prisoners. These works exude a detached professionalism that is equally apparent in many of his later commissions (cf. Kallir, 1990, p. 56).
As early as 1915, Schiele introduced a striking innovation by occasionally shifting the head away from the centre of the page and placing it against an empty background. This approach creates a compelling tension between distance and proximity. While the empty space and the absence of the body seem to evoke a profound sense of uprootedness, the meticulous rendering of the facial features – and, above all, the piercing intensity of the eyes – simultaneously captures and immortalises the sitter's unique individuality.
The present work is one of the few drawings Schiele executed in gouache and watercolour, a choice that may imply the subject was a higher-ranking soldier. Here, he employs a distinctive scratching technique (Kratztechnik) that would become a hallmark of his practice in the following years. By applying the paint thinly with a dry brush, particularly across the flesh tones, the short, individual strokes come to resemble actual scratches. Given the wartime context of the motif, this unconventional technique can easily be read as a poignant metaphor for human vulnerability.
Specialist: Dr. Marianne Hussl-Hörmann
(Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)
Porträt eines Soldaten (Portrait of a soldier), signed and dated EGON SCHIELE 1916, gouache, watercolour and black crayon on paper, 46 x 30 cm
We are grateful to Jane Kallir for confirming the authenticity of this work in original. It will be included in the work catalogue under the number D841a.
Provenance:
Private Collection, Vienna (for three generations)
Compare:
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele. The complete works, New York 1998, p. 564, cat. rais. nos. 1839, 1851.
The nearly two years of military service, particularly in the military supply office of the Mühling prisoner-of-war camp near Wieselburg in Lower Austria in 1916, compelled Egon Schiele to adapt to unfamiliar circumstances and to reorient his artistic focus towards portraits of army superiors, comrades, and prisoners. These works exude a detached professionalism that is equally apparent in many of his later commissions (cf. Kallir, 1990, p. 56).
As early as 1915, Schiele introduced a striking innovation by occasionally shifting the head away from the centre of the page and placing it against an empty background. This approach creates a compelling tension between distance and proximity. While the empty space and the absence of the body seem to evoke a profound sense of uprootedness, the meticulous rendering of the facial features – and, above all, the piercing intensity of the eyes – simultaneously captures and immortalises the sitter's unique individuality.
The present work is one of the few drawings Schiele executed in gouache and watercolour, a choice that may imply the subject was a higher-ranking soldier. Here, he employs a distinctive scratching technique (Kratztechnik) that would become a hallmark of his practice in the following years. By applying the paint thinly with a dry brush, particularly across the flesh tones, the short, individual strokes come to resemble actual scratches. Given the wartime context of the motif, this unconventional technique can easily be read as a poignant metaphor for human vulnerability.
Specialist: Dr. Marianne Hussl-Hörmann
