Lot Essay
Die Schauspielerin Marga Boerner is one of at least three known portraits that Egon Schiele drew of the actress Marga Boerner in 1917. Two of these portraits, including the present work, have also been signed, as if in authorization, by both Schiele and the actress herself.
Executed using a thick black crayon in the bold and assured manner that distinguished the new mature style of drawing that Schiele inaugurated in 1917, these drawings were perhaps made in preparation for an oil portrait that ultimately never seems to have materialized. Certainly, in the two other surviving portraits of Boerner, Schiele has fully coloured his drawings of the actress as if laying the foundations for a painted portrait.
Executed using a thick black crayon in the bold and assured manner that distinguished the new mature style of drawing that Schiele inaugurated in 1917, these drawings were perhaps made in preparation for an oil portrait that ultimately never seems to have materialized. Certainly, in the two other surviving portraits of Boerner, Schiele has fully coloured his drawings of the actress as if laying the foundations for a painted portrait.