Egon Schiele

Galerie Würthle, Vienna
(Probably) acquired from the above by the late owner in the 1960s

Executed on buff-coloured laid paper, not laid down. There are artist's pinholes to the top two corners. There are some small spots of glossy studio dirt to the boy's right thigh. There are small spots of discoloration to the centre of the top edge and to the left edge. Apart from a flattened crease to the bottom of the left edge, this work is in good condition. Colours: the paper tone is slightly warmer and the colours are overall more vibrant.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

In 1910, Schiele executed a number of drawings and watercolours of the male body, which epitomise his highly individual, newly developed Expressionist style. For the most part, the figures executed during this period are beautifully coloured with transparent flesh tones and explicit in the physicality of their poses. The black outlines of the body are roughly sketched, revealing the strong skeletal structure while the flesh is highlighted with soft washes of colour. Seated with his left leg crossed in and his right leg bent behind, the arms sensuously placed on the torso and right leg, we know that this is a pose which the figure cannot hold for very long and it is our anticipation of this movement that adds a sense of dynamism to the scene. Delineated in sharp contours, with the sitter's lips, ear and eyes rendered in poignant strokes of red pigment, Sitzender Junge demonstrates the artist's skill as a draughtsman and his obsession with the sensuous quality of the human form.

Writing about Schiele's depictions of the male nude, Simon Wilson has observed: 'Schiele's mature art presents us with an image of man, free-floating, seen from strange and unusual angles and in strange and unusual postures, that is quite new in the long history of the human image in Western art. He developed in other works a completely fresh view of man in art – an extraordinary achievement. But that is not all: Schiele's image of man is of an unprecedented and remarkable completeness. He depicts [men] as the sexual being [they] are in a way no other great artist had ever done before, and at the same time gives full and equal value to the metaphysical and the psychological' (Simon Wilson, Egon Schiele, Ithaca, 1980, p. 18).

It has been suggested by Jane Kallir that the depicted nude in the present work could possibly be identified as Willy Lidl, a Gymnasium student who fell in love with Schiele during the summer of 1910 (see Willy Lidl in Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1990, no. D616) . It is however not known whether Schiele reciprocated Willy's affections, but the latter's infatuation is documented in several letters.