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拍品专文
Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend belongs to a series of 15 studies of a female model seen from behind, which Egon Schiele executed in 1918 (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. 2287, 2289-2302).
Viewed from behind, a model is portrayed bending over to pull up her stockings. The sharp angle from which the subject is depicted bestows an almost epic dimension onto the female body, presenting a towering mountain of flesh, voluptuous yet unyielding in its form.
By 1918 – the year he executed Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend – Schiele had conquered a flawless drawing technique, capturing his subjects using a single, unbroken line and matching incredible virtuosity with speed of execution. Meanwhile, his interest in the female body had become more sculptural: he appeared more concerned with its forms, than with the expression of palpable personality. Headless and almost unrecognisable in its contorted pose, in Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend the female body has almost been transformed into an abstract form. A single contour line delimits the presence of the body in space, accentuating the soft curves of flesh created by the pose.
According to Jane Kallir, the colouring of this work, however, was probably applied by another hand. Kallir has observed, 'From the start, Schiele's watercolours were priced higher than his uncoloured drawings, and this led to the temptation to embellish his creations in order to increase their value.' (ibid, p. 262).
Although the nude had occupied a prominent position in Schiele’s drawings since the very beginning of his career, the predominance of female studies in his 1917 and 1918 production suggests that the artist gave new emphasis to the theme. Around that period, Schiele had started to conceive an ambitious cycle of murals, which would have adorned an octagonal mausoleum containing three concentric chambers, respectively celebrating ‘earthly existence’, ‘death’ and ‘eternal life’. The final, overall design of the project remains unknown to this day, yet it has been argued that Schiele’s numerous female nude drawings executed in 1918 were somehow related to that grand, never-accomplished idea (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele, Life and Work, New York, 2003, p. 226). Together with the other fourteen related studies, Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend may have been part of Schiele’s studies for the mausoleum.
A surviving fragment of what is thought would have been part of the mausoleum project – Three Standing Women (1918, Leopold Museum) – shows that in 1918 Schiele was in fact working on a composition involving female nudes seen both frontally and from behind. In the context of the mausoleum project, works such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend played the role of rehearsal drawings, preparing the artist to tackle what would have been the most challenging project in his career until then.
Unfortunately, there never was a sequel to works such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend: on October 31st 1918, at the age of twenty-eight, Schiele died, consumed by the Spanish flu that ravished Vienna that winter. On his deathbed, he muttered: ‘Now the war is over and I must go’ (quoted in J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolours, London, 2003, p. 447). Drawings such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend have an added poignancy, showing that the artist disappeared at the height of his artistic power. By then, Vienna had also learnt to respect and celebrate his art: at the Secession exhibition that year Schiele was given a central place, following in Gustav Klimt’s steps as the city’s leading artist.
Viewed from behind, a model is portrayed bending over to pull up her stockings. The sharp angle from which the subject is depicted bestows an almost epic dimension onto the female body, presenting a towering mountain of flesh, voluptuous yet unyielding in its form.
By 1918 – the year he executed Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend – Schiele had conquered a flawless drawing technique, capturing his subjects using a single, unbroken line and matching incredible virtuosity with speed of execution. Meanwhile, his interest in the female body had become more sculptural: he appeared more concerned with its forms, than with the expression of palpable personality. Headless and almost unrecognisable in its contorted pose, in Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend the female body has almost been transformed into an abstract form. A single contour line delimits the presence of the body in space, accentuating the soft curves of flesh created by the pose.
According to Jane Kallir, the colouring of this work, however, was probably applied by another hand. Kallir has observed, 'From the start, Schiele's watercolours were priced higher than his uncoloured drawings, and this led to the temptation to embellish his creations in order to increase their value.' (ibid, p. 262).
Although the nude had occupied a prominent position in Schiele’s drawings since the very beginning of his career, the predominance of female studies in his 1917 and 1918 production suggests that the artist gave new emphasis to the theme. Around that period, Schiele had started to conceive an ambitious cycle of murals, which would have adorned an octagonal mausoleum containing three concentric chambers, respectively celebrating ‘earthly existence’, ‘death’ and ‘eternal life’. The final, overall design of the project remains unknown to this day, yet it has been argued that Schiele’s numerous female nude drawings executed in 1918 were somehow related to that grand, never-accomplished idea (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele, Life and Work, New York, 2003, p. 226). Together with the other fourteen related studies, Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend may have been part of Schiele’s studies for the mausoleum.
A surviving fragment of what is thought would have been part of the mausoleum project – Three Standing Women (1918, Leopold Museum) – shows that in 1918 Schiele was in fact working on a composition involving female nudes seen both frontally and from behind. In the context of the mausoleum project, works such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend played the role of rehearsal drawings, preparing the artist to tackle what would have been the most challenging project in his career until then.
Unfortunately, there never was a sequel to works such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend: on October 31st 1918, at the age of twenty-eight, Schiele died, consumed by the Spanish flu that ravished Vienna that winter. On his deathbed, he muttered: ‘Now the war is over and I must go’ (quoted in J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolours, London, 2003, p. 447). Drawings such as Weiblicher Rückenakt, Strümpfe anziehend have an added poignancy, showing that the artist disappeared at the height of his artistic power. By then, Vienna had also learnt to respect and celebrate his art: at the Secession exhibition that year Schiele was given a central place, following in Gustav Klimt’s steps as the city’s leading artist.