Egon Schiele

Dr. Othmar Fritsch (acquired from the artist)
Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern
Walter Feilchenfeldt, Zurich
Galerie Ariadne, Vienna
Sale: Dorotheum, Vienna, November 15, 1983, lot 156
Private Collection, London (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 16, 1984, lot 148)
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Baden-Baden, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Gustav Klimt und Egon Schiele, 1958, no. 42
Vienna, Galerie Ariadne, Lagerkatalog, circa 1975, n.n.
New York, Neue Gallery, Egon Schiele Portraits, 2014-15, n.n.

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1990, no. 2096, illustrated p. 593
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. 2096, illustrated p. 593

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is affixed to the mount on the verso of the upper corners and the center of the upper edge and the center of the lower edge, both on verso. A few minor flattened creases to the sheet and some light discoloration, otherwise fine. This work is in excellent condition.
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Commissioned portraits became an important part of Schiele’s later artistic output. As Jane Kallir remarks: “Commissioned portrait drawings—as distinct from studies for oils or sketches done to amuse friends and patrons—now begin to provide a significant source of income” (Jane Kallir, op. cit., p. 567). Whilst initially these commissions came from known sources—often those he worked with at the Military Supply Depot or on the plans for the Kunsthalle project—he soon began to receive requests from a wide range of collectors, art critics, writers and dealers. It is likely that Dr. Othmar Fritsch was among these; an art historian working at the Graz Museum, his name appears in list of addresses that Schiele used during this period. It was Schiele’s practice to do three drawings—one colored—and offer his sitter their choice; evidently Dr Fritsch, if he indeed was given the choice, decided upon the colored version.

As with many of the drawings, Schiele focuses closely on the face of his subject. As Kallir notes, discussing the portraits of this year: “Special attention was regularly given to the hands and face, which Schiele had always considered the most expressive parts of the human body. As previously, it is always possible to intuit the artist’s personal feelings toward the sitter from his portraits. Most are remarkably sensitive to nuances of emotion and personality” (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, Drawings and Watercolors, New York, 2003, p. 387). In the present work Schiele depicts his subject from a slight angle, yet Fritsch’s eyes gaze directly at the viewer, conveying a wry intelligence. The delicate coloring enhances this effect, creating a portrait full of warmth and expression.