Akt

In January of 1917 Schiele had returned to Vienna where he was stationed at the Military Supply Depot. Once again based in the city where he had made his name as an artist, his ambition revitalised and grew. 'I want to start anew' he wrote to his friend Anton Peschka commenting on his personal sense of the maturity of his art and his new confidence in his work. 'It seems to me that until now I have just been preparing the tools' (Egon Schiele, letter to Anton Pescka in January 1917 quoted in Christian M. Nebehay, ed. Egon Schiele (1890-1918): Leben, Briefe, Gedichte, Vienna, 1979, no. 1170).

Akt is a striking life study from 1917, executed in the black crayon that distinguishes Schiele's work of this period. A difficult material to work with, on account of the fact that its indelibility permits no errors, Schiele had adopted the medium at the beginning of the year and as this work reflects, used it to convey his mastery and ease with line. Positioned slightly to the right of the page, the stretching nude figure is rendered with a startling and precocious simplicity, the black crayon capturing the volume and twist of her form in response to Schiele's miraculous touch and unerring eye. The simple drawing is completed in the empty space at the bottom left of the page by the flourish of Schiele's distinctive cartouche signature.