EGON SCHIELE

(1890-1918)

Sitzende Frau

Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, Vienna and London (possibly acquired directly from the artist).
Liesl Bunzl Collection, Vienna and London (by descent from the above).
Thence by descent to the present owners.

Literature
J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, 1998, no. 1999 (illustrated p. 582).

'He had always been a demon draftsman [...] and his line, by 1917, had acquired an unprecedented degree of precision [...] Schiele's drawing technique – the armature upon which all his painted forms rested – had acquired an almost classical purity [...] Schiele's hand had never been surer, more capable of grasping, in a single breath-taking sweep, the complete contour of a figure. This extreme dexterity invited mannerism; when his subject was not particularly exciting, drawing was just too easy for him. And yet, when he was inspired, his execution was flawless; he had found, in the best of his late work, the perfect line' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele, Life and Work, New York, 2003, pp. 223 & 230).

Expressionism was characterised by a deep exploration of identity, of individual inward analysis and questioning, and an unwavering scrutinization of a rapidly modernising world. In Austria, Egon Schiele was by far the movement's foremost exponent, swiftly leading him to become Austria's leading artist of the time before his untimely death on 31st October 1918, at the age of just 28. This astronomical rise to critical acclaim within his short lifetime goes some way to illustrate the utmost quality of his ability and the deep resonance his work found in contemporary society, though it was not without its trials. Generally unappreciated for many years after his death, we look back at Egon Schiele as one of the twentieth century's most prolific, confrontational, and challenging artists.

As the youngest student enrolled at the Viennese Akademie der Bildenden Künste in 1906, it was not long before Schiele broke away to carve his own path through the streets of the capital, documenting his rampant adolescent sexual energy, together with the unceasing hypocrisies of 'civilised' Viennese society to which he belonged. Thus began one of art canon's finest examinations into the vulnerability of the human figure through an unabashed examination of the vagrants and prostitutes of Vienna, and of the artist himself.

Schiele's works from the 1910-1911 period are known for their unforgiving frankness and provocative imagery as the artist focused intensely on questions concerning identity and the individual, sexuality, spirituality and death. This is often presented through the gazing youthful eyes of Vienna's street urchins, the explicit representation of prostitutes, or through the stark, emaciated nude figure of Schiele himself, contorted into varying positions and selves: 'Schiele the effeminate, the elegant, the dandy; Schiele the fearful, the anguished, the uncertain; Schiele the stoic, the angry; Schiele beautiful and Schiele hideous' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, p. 68).

This period defined his public character as the rebellious maverick who sought to question, probe and shock, intending to expose people for how they really were, and the works somewhat echo the grotesque faces by Leonardo Da Vinci in their gruesome exaggeration. This shock factor certainly helped garner awareness for Schiele at the time but also had a profound effect on his rediscovery later in the twentieth century as longstanding rigid social structures were questioned and confronted more vigorously.

This brazen approach to human depiction did however eventually result in the artist's brief incarceration following a string of incidents in rural Austria-Hungary in 1911-1912. Accused of kidnap, rape, and public immorality, he was ultimately only charged with the latter on account of his open display of erotic drawings in his studio home and served a month of jail time. This imprisonment, albeit brief, had a profound effect on the young artist and it was a major catalyst for his renewed approach, it 'checked the wayward slide of his adolescent impulses, shocking him back to reality so that he could complete the process of socialization and take his place in the adult world [...]. He had learned the hard way that his special artistic mission did not, after all, grant him immunity from society's strictures. If he wanted to protect the former, he would, in the future, have to obey the latter' (Kallir, op. cit., p. 127). Nevertheless, controversy can be of huge benefit to the up-and-coming artist, infamously the melancholic Expressionist Edvard Munch became a sensation overnight following national outcry over his works at the Verein Berliner Künstler in November 1892 – an event that ultimately birthed the German avant-garde. Ultimately, Schiele was alert to the profound commercial benefit of this scandal, with his name murmured across the lips of the art-conscious elite.

'I want to start anew [...]. It seems to me that until now I have just been preparing the tools' (Schiele quoted in a letter to Anton Peschka in C. Nebehay, Egon Schiele, 1890-1918: Leben, Briefe, Gedichte, Salzburg & Vienna, 1979, p. 209).

As Schiele matured emotionally, so he did artistically and by 1917-1918 his output had developed considerably, the period marked with a renewed creative vitality. His works, whilst still focused on the human disposition, comprised a more confident line displaying greater precision and fluidity as he sculpted his sitters with a series of simple loose black lines. Female sitters challengingly confront the viewer with a boldness and unflinching gaze illuminated through their simplified pictoral construction. The faceless doll-like figures of the 1914-1915 period are gone, replaced with a defiant realism. Schiele now appears to shift towards a voyeuristic separation from the model, allowing them ownership of the space, though the raw sensuality of his sitters is by no means diminished by his maturation of style. On the contrary, they themselves are presented with a new confidence and owned eroticism, unseen in previous years, the sexually explicit exchanged for a more tantalisingly suggestive experience.

As Jane Kallir commented: 'Schiele's women are, by 1917-18, thoroughly modern. Like most modern women, they own their sexuality. The nude and semi-nude models take pride in their seductive bodies and are empowered by their allure [...]. Nor are they projections of the artist's ego. They combine the mystery and the specificity of complete, independent human beings' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele's Women, Munich, 2012, p. 266).

Indeed, of the present works, Sitzende Frau and Sitzende Frau mit Hut both illustrate this prowess openly, but also via minor subtleties. Found in the catalogue raisonné amongst a series of very similar works of a woman in the chronological stages of undress - some identified as Adele Harms - Sitzende Frau pulls us directly into a modelling session in Schiele's Heitzinger Hauptstraße studio. The model has begun to seductively remove her stocking from a cocked knee, her intimate undergarments hanging suggestively from her shoulders and her hair loosely bound, on the precipice of cascading freely – each element rendered with a minimal line, but successfully conveying the tangibility of a finished painting. Unlike the earlier models, she lacks a vulnerability, instead emanating a proud and defiant confidence, as well as perhaps a more illicit relationship with the artist. Sitzende Frau mit Hut alludes to a separate, more personal relationship, as she gazes directly outwards with a far more intimate and suggestive view. Even so, fully clothed in her striped blouse - a pattern the was synonymous in the portrayals of his wife Edith – Schiele constructs her suggestive sexuality through the fetishized motifs of his oeuvre: the laced boot and the sculpted calf; the exposed skin of her leg leading the viewer's eyes astray.

The sitters of Schiele's work can rarely be fully identified with any certainty, though sometimes inscriptions or matching photographs allow some greater insight. However, in the later years of 1917-1918, Edith and Adele Harms are certainly prominent figures in his works and would become two of his most important and storied muses. The Harms' were the bourgeois sisters that lived opposite the artist's studio and who were supposedly harangued by Schiele until they agreed to meet with him. This resulted in the end of his passionate affair with iconic muse Walburga 'Wally' Neuzil and his eventual marriage to Edith in June 1915 in order to 'marry advantageously' as he infamously quoted to dealer and patron Arthur Roessler. There are many tales and theories around the relationship between the artist, his wife and his sister-in-law, however, Adele later revealed to renowned Schiele scholar Alessandra Comini that there had been intimate relations. Later, she noted: 'The "unconquered" Adele became increasingly desirable in his eyes and in 1917, as part of his efforts to entice her, he persuaded the self-identified "nun" to pose for his camera in her underclothes as well as in the nude. Schiele's photograph is of interest other than as the documentation of a seduction. It incorporates all of his fetishes – the high heels, black stockings, garters, dentillated underslip, and fragile band containing a potential torrent of hair – and catches the model in a provocative, intimate pose that bears all the hallmarks of a Schiele drawing, as comparison with a watercolor portrait of Adele done the same year makes clear' (A. Comini, Egon Schiele's Portraits, Berkeley, Los Angeles & London, 1990, p. 147).

Schiele's portrayals of women rank amongst the most innovative depictions of the female figure of the century, and he is joined in this regard by Auguste Rodin, the father of modern sculpture, whose rapid drawings of female models were not studies for sculptures but rather finished artworks themselves. His mapping of the human form sought to capture and investigate new ideas. He drew his sitters in a variety of different fashions, constantly moving them and rearranging, the importance of this process defined by the artist himself: 'It's very simple. My drawings are the key to my work.' (Rodin quoted in R. Benjamin, 'Les Dessins d'Auguste Rodin', in Salle des Fêtes du Gil Blas, Paris, 1910, p. 16). He and Schiele both utilised what is known as the continuous drawing technique, wherein an artist must continue their line on the paper while maintaining constant eye contact with the sitter, that captures the moment with an unparalleled immediacy and spontaneity.

Egon Schiele is a rare example of an artist who achieved professional success within his lifetime. Following Gustav Klimt's death in February 1918, he was recognised as Austria's leading living artist, a reputation confirmed by his sell-out solo exhibition at the Vienna Secession in March of that year. His burning flame extinguished long before it was due, this popularity is ever-present today and his work remains highly sought after. Schiele is the fabled maverick of the art world, his renegade line unafraid to confront and question, his oeuvre filled with a youthful energy to the last work; he remains undoubtedly one of the finest draughtsmen of the twentieth century.

The present four works by Schiele come to auction from the prominent and influential Bunzl family, whose family business had an eminent history, stretching back to 1854, before the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Registered at this early date as a haberdashery in modern day Slovakia, Moritz Bunzl began what would go on to become a globally recognised business. After the Anschluss in 1938, much of the family emigrated from their home in Vienna to Switzerland, the US and to London. Sitzende Frau and Sitzende Frau mit Hut are thought to have been acquired on a visit to the studio of the artist by Elisabeth 'Liesl' Bunzl, who would have only been five or six years old at the time, and her aunt. Liesl in fact later requested Edith Schiele in gestreiftem Kleid, sitzend (Kallir no.1717) as a wedding present in 1936 and was reluctantly gifted it by her family. The work is now housed in the Leopold Collection, Vienna, after Rudolf Leopold acquired it in 1993, setting a record price for a work on paper by Schiele at the time by achieving $1,088,000. It is one of Schiele's most renowned depictions of his wife.

Both Sitzende Frau and Sitzende Frau mit Hut come to auction for the very first time since their creation, having spent over 100 years in Bunzl family ownership.