Egon Schiele

Galeries St. Etienne, New York
Private Collection, New York
Richard Nagy Ltd, London
Private Collection, New York (acquired from the above)
Private Collection

Berkeley, University Art Gallery of the University of California; Pasadena Art Museum, Viennese Expressionism 1910-1924, 1963, no. 77
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Egon Schiele (1890-1918): Watercolors and Drawings, 1968, no 18, illustrated 

Rudolf Leopold, Egon Schiele: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Salzburg, 1972, p. 502
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, Complete Works, no. 2065, p. 589, illustrated

Very good condition. Not laid down; hinged to mat at four corners. There is some staining along the top edge of the sheet; the sheet may be slightly time darkened.
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Seated Female nude with green boots (Torso) is a powerful and arresting image of a female nude reflecting the artist's obsession with the allure and eroticism of the female body. As the artist matured, his depictions of female subjects became more formally refined yet maintained their erotic magnetism. The present work was executed in 1917, only one year before his death at the age of 28. As evident in the sitter's squatting posture, the present work is a study for the subsequent painting The Family (Squatting couple) in which the artist depicts himself and a woman, possibly Schiele's wife Edith with child (fig. 1), referring to her impending pregnancy at the time.

In contrast to his earlier renditions of the female body, the present depiction bears signs of his artistic sophistication and his professional distance from his model. Rather than confronting the viewer with the sitter's gaze in an attempt to establish a relationship, he omits her head and concentrates exclusively on her body. His focus here is almost entirely on her legs, both bent in front of her torso. He renders the most sensual details of her anatomy - the firm contours of her calves and the supple flesh of her thighs and arms - with remarkable confidence and technical control. Only the most skilled of draftsmen could depict this hyper-sexualized subject with such formal sophistication.

"Pursuing the trend set in motion several years earlier," as Jane Kallir writes, "Schiele's work becomes increasingly naturalistic over the course of 1917. Soft pencil gradually gives way to black crayon, which yields heavier, more even lines, that are less prone to the fluctuations in density and strength characteristic of pencil. The artist evinces a far greater economy of line, fixing his subjects in single perfect strokes and avoiding the complicated retracing and doubling of earlier times" (Jane Kallir, op.cit., p. 567). All parts share the expressiveness of line, from the boots to the bent legs merging into the model's torso and arms. The plastic impression achieved by line is strengthened by a soft, flecking application of color to the structural highlights, suggesting the tactile quality of the woman's body through the interplay of light and shadow.

Kallir has also noted that these late drawings are among Schiele's best and most appealing: "The model's splay their legs, fondle one another or masturbate with the aloofness of professional performers. Schiele - and by extension the viewer - are no longer participants in a process of sexual exploration, but merely voyeurs. It is not a coincidence that nudes from Schiele's late period have for years been much sought after by collectors. These women are exquisite objects of delectation" (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Drawings & Watercolours, New York, 2003, p. 390).

FIG. 1, Egon Schiele, The Family (Squatting couple), 1918, oil on canvas, Österreichische Galerie, Vienna