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Lot Essay
Executed in 1910, Kniendes Mädchen, sich den Rock über den Kopf ziehend belongs to a fertile and exploratory period in Egon Schiele's oeuvre, when many of his finest works were produced. Dropping out of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts in 1909 granted Schiele new found personal independence, and access to new artistic influences that set in motion rapid stylistic changes which would propel his career as an artist. The conflict between decorative abstraction and realism, prevalent in the figural paintings of Schiele’s mentor Gustav Klimt, was resolved as Schiele developed a powerfully expressive pictorial language which balanced form and representation. The year 1910 in particular marks a decisive turning point in his creative development: effaced in the Jugendstil design, human aspect assumed dominance in Schiele’s works. From here on the nude would come to play a central role in his drawings and watercolours. A further stylistic shift occurred in the second half of 1910, when Schiele’s palette changed from bright acidic colours to a combination of dusky, autumnal shades – mauves, blacks, browns, and deeper shades of blue – as seen in the present lot.
Executed in a combination of watercolour, gouache and pencil, Kniendes Mädchen, sich den Rock über den Kopf ziehend depicts a semi-nude sitter. In the transitionary years of early adulthood, the subject projects the poignant combination of naiveté and sexual precocity that accompanies this period. Whereas children had been associated with purity by the conservative societies of the 19th Century, due to the growing popularity of Sigmund Freud’s Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, childhood became closely associated with primitive sexual impulses. Having turned 20 in June 1910, Schiele was in many ways himself still an adolescent, albeit having achieved early maturity as an artist. Young women, often in various stages of undress, feature in Schiele’s oeuvre with recurring frequency between 1910 and 1911. Such figures from poorer areas of Vienna were not only willing to pose for significantly smaller amounts of money than professional models or even prostitutes, but, perhaps more importantly for Schiele, they also had an air of nonchalance and unrestraint which allowed him to explore human nature in its most uninhibited form.
Kniendes Mädchen, sich den Rock über den Kopf ziehend encapsulates the increasing confidence Schiele had developed in the use of watercolour and gouache, as well as his innate technical ability as a draughtsman. The elegant unbroken lines, following the contours of the sitter’s youthful figure, enable her to be depicted simultaneously in a realistic and expressively stylised manner. Due to his agility with the brush, Schiele could achieve subtle colour transitions as well as wet-on-wet effects that a less proficient artist would struggle with. The forms, especially noticeable in the rendering of the fabric of the dress, are defined by the gyrations of the paint. The young sitter directly meets the gaze of the viewer, engaging with them as their eyes wander along the sinuous lines of her slender body. The interplay between the heavy drapery of the dress and her slight frame both emphasises the angularity of the sitter, and heightens the erotic effect of the manner in which she is portrayed. Her demeanour is inherently bold, and somewhat provocative – the hem of the dress is firmly held in between her pursed lips, which are accentuated with red pigment, exposing the lower half of her body. Challenging contemporary taboos and presaging a more fluid approach to gender and sexuality, the present work illustrates Schiele’s response to his models.
Executed in a combination of watercolour, gouache and pencil, Kniendes Mädchen, sich den Rock über den Kopf ziehend depicts a semi-nude sitter. In the transitionary years of early adulthood, the subject projects the poignant combination of naiveté and sexual precocity that accompanies this period. Whereas children had been associated with purity by the conservative societies of the 19th Century, due to the growing popularity of Sigmund Freud’s Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie, childhood became closely associated with primitive sexual impulses. Having turned 20 in June 1910, Schiele was in many ways himself still an adolescent, albeit having achieved early maturity as an artist. Young women, often in various stages of undress, feature in Schiele’s oeuvre with recurring frequency between 1910 and 1911. Such figures from poorer areas of Vienna were not only willing to pose for significantly smaller amounts of money than professional models or even prostitutes, but, perhaps more importantly for Schiele, they also had an air of nonchalance and unrestraint which allowed him to explore human nature in its most uninhibited form.
Kniendes Mädchen, sich den Rock über den Kopf ziehend encapsulates the increasing confidence Schiele had developed in the use of watercolour and gouache, as well as his innate technical ability as a draughtsman. The elegant unbroken lines, following the contours of the sitter’s youthful figure, enable her to be depicted simultaneously in a realistic and expressively stylised manner. Due to his agility with the brush, Schiele could achieve subtle colour transitions as well as wet-on-wet effects that a less proficient artist would struggle with. The forms, especially noticeable in the rendering of the fabric of the dress, are defined by the gyrations of the paint. The young sitter directly meets the gaze of the viewer, engaging with them as their eyes wander along the sinuous lines of her slender body. The interplay between the heavy drapery of the dress and her slight frame both emphasises the angularity of the sitter, and heightens the erotic effect of the manner in which she is portrayed. Her demeanour is inherently bold, and somewhat provocative – the hem of the dress is firmly held in between her pursed lips, which are accentuated with red pigment, exposing the lower half of her body. Challenging contemporary taboos and presaging a more fluid approach to gender and sexuality, the present work illustrates Schiele’s response to his models.