拍品专文
Schiele’s father passed away in 1904 and his uncle and godfather Leopold Czihaczek became increasingly involved in the family’s plans for his education. Schiele would often visit his uncle in the Vienna suburb of Klosterneuberg, where his uncle maintained a summer home, and where Schiele was studying at the local Realgymnasium. Combined with the trauma of his father’s death, Schiele became increasingly unhappy with his family’s insistence that he continue his very formal education towards a career as an engineer - at the expense of his very obvious talent and passion for art. When Schiele’s mother insisted that he would study art, Leopold Czihaczek refused to pay the tuition. However, when Schiele was successful in his application and tests for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in October 1906, Leopold could not argue with the young Schiele’s success and embraced his future career.
Schiele moved to Vienna with his mother and sisters and would have lunch every day with his uncle, and his aunt, Marie Czihaczek. Leopold would give Schiele pocket money and money for his art materials, and would often visit him at the Academy. When, in 1907, it became time for Schiele to rent a studio, Leopold helped his young nephew. Leopold became Schiele’s most common portrait sitter, and Schiele painted a number of oils of his distinguished uncle, typically in the formal attire of a well-to-do civil servant of the time.
As well as being the year that Schiele started at the Academy and rented his first studio, 1907 was also the year that Schiele met Gustav Klimt. The highly stylized drawing of the female figure in the present lot, with an equally stylized handwritten text, clearly shows Klimt’s influence on the young artist. The style is kept in the popular Viennese Secessionsstil, the total art style which included the decorative arts, represented by the incense burner on a tripod. The drawing is executed on a greeting card that the artist dedicated and gave to his aunt Marie Czihaczek, and bears a tender inscription inside. The family clearly held this work dear, as it passed to Schiele’s favourite sister Gertrude, known as ‘Gertie’, when he died in 1918, and remained in her family for many years.
What my light pencil designs is easy to erase. So I forgot the word, even if it was stamped by the ore.
Do you know me, good friend no more?
And do you see this figure, which you recognised before, as a strange entity now?
That sweet dream of the lightest earthly days, oh, whoever appreciates this worthy value!
For what man, in his earthly barriers, calls great fortune by the name of the gods, the harmony of the Treve, which refuses to shake, the light, the allusion only to solitary thoughts, I discovered it all in my best hours and found it for myself, and if you feel a friendly memory, you will not spoil the little gift.
Dedicated on your name day by your grateful nephew Egon.
Vienna, 15. Nov. 07.
(Transcription from the inside page of the card)
Schiele moved to Vienna with his mother and sisters and would have lunch every day with his uncle, and his aunt, Marie Czihaczek. Leopold would give Schiele pocket money and money for his art materials, and would often visit him at the Academy. When, in 1907, it became time for Schiele to rent a studio, Leopold helped his young nephew. Leopold became Schiele’s most common portrait sitter, and Schiele painted a number of oils of his distinguished uncle, typically in the formal attire of a well-to-do civil servant of the time.
As well as being the year that Schiele started at the Academy and rented his first studio, 1907 was also the year that Schiele met Gustav Klimt. The highly stylized drawing of the female figure in the present lot, with an equally stylized handwritten text, clearly shows Klimt’s influence on the young artist. The style is kept in the popular Viennese Secessionsstil, the total art style which included the decorative arts, represented by the incense burner on a tripod. The drawing is executed on a greeting card that the artist dedicated and gave to his aunt Marie Czihaczek, and bears a tender inscription inside. The family clearly held this work dear, as it passed to Schiele’s favourite sister Gertrude, known as ‘Gertie’, when he died in 1918, and remained in her family for many years.
What my light pencil designs is easy to erase. So I forgot the word, even if it was stamped by the ore.
Do you know me, good friend no more?
And do you see this figure, which you recognised before, as a strange entity now?
That sweet dream of the lightest earthly days, oh, whoever appreciates this worthy value!
For what man, in his earthly barriers, calls great fortune by the name of the gods, the harmony of the Treve, which refuses to shake, the light, the allusion only to solitary thoughts, I discovered it all in my best hours and found it for myself, and if you feel a friendly memory, you will not spoil the little gift.
Dedicated on your name day by your grateful nephew Egon.
Vienna, 15. Nov. 07.
(Transcription from the inside page of the card)