Weiblicher Torso in Unterwäsche und schwarzen Strümpfen

This drawing is one in a series of studies that Schiele made of a young model--probably his wife Edith or perhaps his sister-in-law Adele Harms--who wears her hair pinned up and is clad in a slip, black stockings and high-heeled boots (cf. Kallir, nos. 1969, 1971-1978 and 1992-1996; a rear view of this model, no. 1976, sold Christie's New York, 6 November 2008, lot 2). Schiele purposely arranged that her state of semi-undress include garments selected for their fetish appeal, in order to titillate viewers. Indeed, the series creates the effect of a striptease, in which the model at one point appears only in her stockings (Kallir, no. 1978). In the present gouache, the artist has concentrated on the ways in which the model's silken undergarments define and accentuate the twisting form of her seated figure, taking special care to capture the dovetailed pattern in the folds of her chemise. Schiele's treatment of this subject is in his new, more naturalistic and volumetric manner of drawing (see note to lot 1), which contributed to the widening appeal that such drawings held for Viennese collectors.