Egon Schiele

Estate of the artist
Erich Lederer, Geneva
Elisabeth Lederer, Geneva (by descent from the above in 1985)
Estate of Erich and Elisabeth Lederer, Vienna (by 1995)
De Pury and Luxembourg Art, Geneva (acquired from the above in 1998)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

 

Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Gustav Klimt - Egon Schiele. Zum Gedächtnis ihres Todes vor 50 Jahren, Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, 1968, no. 253, illustrated in the catalogue 
New York, Neue Galerie, Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections, 2005-06, no. D127, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
New York, Neue Galerie, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Berlin Street Scene, 2007

Alessandra Comini, Egon Schiele, New York, 1976, illustrated pl. 62
Gianfranco Malafarina, Tout l'œuvre peint de Schiele, Paris, 1983, no. D77, illustrated p. 113
Christian M. Nebehay, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele und die Familie Lederer, Bern, 1987, illustrated p. 127
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, London, 1998, no. 1708, illustrated p. 547

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount in the top two corners. Apart from some minor surface dirt, this work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration.
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Executed in 1915, the same year as Schiele's marriage to Edith Harms on 17th June, the present work is a wonderfully delicate depiction of Edith, her personality emerging through the expressive rendering of her face with the remarkable, luminous eyes. Edith, the elegant daughter of a railway machinist, met Schiele in 1914 together with her sister Adele, as her family was living opposite the artist's studio. From the big arched window of his studio, Schiele could look across and see the girls in their apartment. As Jane Kallir writes: 'To catch their attention, he flapped his drawings out the window and made bizarre, provocative gestures. They giggled to each other and turned away. [...] If, as has been suggested, the Harms sisters, one brunette and one blond, were analogous to the Schiele sisters, then it must have been ordained from the start that Egon would favour the younger fair-haired Edith. By early 1915, it was evident that they were in love' (J. Kallir, op. cit., pp. 176-178).

Although Schiele had been conscripted into the army in mid-June, by July he had been posted back to Vienna and in August he applied for a period of sick-leave. During this time, he executed a number of portrait studies of Edith in various poses, including the life-size oil Bildnis der Frau des Künstlers, stehend (Edith Schiele in gestreiftem Kleid), located in the Haags Gemeentemuseum voor Moderne Kunst in the Hague, which shows Edith wearing a multi-coloured striped dress (J. Kallir, op. cit., no. 290).