Egon Schiele

Galerie Würthle, Vienna
C. J. Rittmannsberger, Vienna (probably acquired from the above in the 1960s)
Private Collection (by descent from the above and sold: Sotheby's, London, June 26, 2008, lot 158)
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1990, no. 1663, illustrated p. 542
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. 1663, illustrated p. 542

Executed on buff colored wove paper not laid down. Hinged to the mat on the reverse of the upper corners and floating in its mount. There are two vertical creases running the length of the composition, parallel to the left and right edges; two small diagonal creases along the lower left corner. The edges are slightly deckled and display some handling creases. A few artist pinholes to the center of the upper edge. The sheet displays some light discoloration and faint spots of foxing throughout. Remnants of old framer's tape visible on the verso of the left edge and a studio stain on the figure's sleeve. This work is in fairly good condition.
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The impact of Schiele's imprisonment on obscenity charges in 1912 was evident in his subsequent self-portraits. The body, once the primary vehicle of the artist's self-expression, is no longer the subject of scrutiny. In the paintings and drawings that he completed after his release, there is no longer such an emphasis on the eroticism that had previously dominated his work. This, however, is not a sign that Schiele had succumbed to social pressure and toned down his art accordingly; his work of these years takes on a new degree of maturity and technical mastery with its focus on the sheer beauty of line. In Selbstdarstellung, these stark lines capture a new sense of anguish. Schiele is less concerned with the intricacies of anatomy, and more focused on the visual impact of the composition as a whole. Much of the emphasis here is on the outlining of the figure and capturing all the contours of his twisted, writhing body which combine with the unsettling stare of his hollow eyes to deliver a visual impact that is in many ways more powerful and confrontational than the image of his nude body.

By 1914, when Selbstdarstellung was executed, Schiele had already begun depicting himself either allegorically or as an alternate persona; other drawings from the same year show the artist as a thinker, Pierrot or a martyred Saint Sebastian. This was artist’s predominant mode of self-portraiture prior to 1915, and, as in the present work, the shielded or ‘vacant’ eyes and hermitically austere clothing signify the figure's prophetic powers of self-awareness. The contorted physiognomy of these depictions is archetypical of his use of gesture as a visual rendition of a complex emotional and artistic attitude.

As with many of his self-portraits, the emaciated, skull-like features of Selbstdarstellung express the spiritual hunger and suffering of the ‘Artist’, and are further extensions of the allegorical sentiments expressed by his ‘blinded’ eyes. Commenting on the importance of this subject, Vivien Gaston wrote: “Egon Schiele’s sensational self-portraits explore a new vision of the relation between mind, body, and emotion. In attitudes of dance-like eloquence, he mobilises his whole body, expressing sexual vitality, vulnerability, suffering and malaise” (Vivien Gaston, Vienna: Art & Design—Klimt, Schiele, Hoffmann, Loos (exhibition catalogue), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2011, p. 146).