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Lot Essay
Executed in 1908, Segelschiff mit Ruderboot (Triest) belongs to an exquisite series of seven paintings Schiele made in the port city of Trieste over the summers of 1907 and 1908 (Kallir, nos. 84-85 and 113-117), each of similar scale and focusing on the pattern and color of fishing boats at rest in the harbor. It was in 1907 that the seventeen-year-old Schiele introduced himself to Gustav Klimt in what was probably the Museum Café near the Secession building in the heart of Vienna. On a visit to Klimt's studio, soon after this first meeting, where he showed the elder artist his own work and asked if he had any talent, Schiele received from Klimt the now famous reply, "Talent? Yes, too much talent." Dating from the following year, Segelschiff mit Ruderboot (Triest), with its rich coloration and strong sense of line, indicates the future direction that Schiele's art would take.
At the Academy Schiele was still not allowed to paint in oils, least of all in a manner that, as in this work, with its emphasis on the abstract pattern of lines reflecting in the water's surface, began to imitate the Jugendstil of the Secession. Schiele's master at the Academy, Professor Christian Griepenkerl, was particularly fierce in his opposition to Secessionist art and attempted to forbid his students from even visiting their exhibitions. Fearful of any signs of wayward originality or off-beat talent in his students, Professor Griepenkerl found in Schiele a troublesome adversary. In Trieste, away from the restrictions he experienced both at home and at the Academy, Schiele felt free to independently pursue his own vision.
Schiele often recalled these early visits to Trieste as being among the happiest times of his life. When later imprisoned for a brief period in Neuglenbach in 1912 he comforted himself by recalling these days in Trieste and by drawing the boats in its harbor from his memory. "I dreamt of Trieste," he wrote in his prison journal, "of the sea, of open space. Longing, oh longing! For comfort I painted myself a ship, colorful and big-bellied, like those that rock back and forth on the Adriatic. In it longing and fantasy can sail over the sea, far out to distant islands where jewel-like birds glide and sing among incredible trees. Oh sea?" (Prison Diary, 1 May 1912).
At the Academy Schiele was still not allowed to paint in oils, least of all in a manner that, as in this work, with its emphasis on the abstract pattern of lines reflecting in the water's surface, began to imitate the Jugendstil of the Secession. Schiele's master at the Academy, Professor Christian Griepenkerl, was particularly fierce in his opposition to Secessionist art and attempted to forbid his students from even visiting their exhibitions. Fearful of any signs of wayward originality or off-beat talent in his students, Professor Griepenkerl found in Schiele a troublesome adversary. In Trieste, away from the restrictions he experienced both at home and at the Academy, Schiele felt free to independently pursue his own vision.
Schiele often recalled these early visits to Trieste as being among the happiest times of his life. When later imprisoned for a brief period in Neuglenbach in 1912 he comforted himself by recalling these days in Trieste and by drawing the boats in its harbor from his memory. "I dreamt of Trieste," he wrote in his prison journal, "of the sea, of open space. Longing, oh longing! For comfort I painted myself a ship, colorful and big-bellied, like those that rock back and forth on the Adriatic. In it longing and fantasy can sail over the sea, far out to distant islands where jewel-like birds glide and sing among incredible trees. Oh sea?" (Prison Diary, 1 May 1912).