Professor Rudolf Leopold, Vienna
Acquired from the above by the father of the present owner in the 1950s

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. 678, illustrated p. 424

Executed on buff coloured wove paper, not laid down. There are remnants of tape from previous mounting on the reverse of the top edge. Apart from some typical handling creases to the sheet, and a tiny area of associated gouache loss at the bottom of the white area, this work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Executed in 1910, Männlicher Akt mit verkürzten Armen is a powerful and arresting depiction of the male nude, epitomizing Schiele's highly individual, newly-developed Expressionist style. Although it cannot be determined with certainty whether this image is a self-portrait, it reflects, like most of Schiele's depictions of male torsos, the artist's observations of hisඣ own body, and contains a strong self-reflective quality. The sharp lines with which Schiele has captured the figure ꦜexemplify brilliantly the artist's concern with the intricacies of male anatomy whilst adding a dramatic immediacy to the work. The truncated arms, the white outlines of the entire figure and the positioning of the model slightly off center represent the beginning of the development of Schiele's signature style.

The year 1910 marks the time when Schiele executed his first ground-breaking Expressionist works. He was scarcely twenty years old when he achieved artistic maturity. According to Jane Kallir, Schiele dealt more directly than most artists with the psychological problems of late adolescence and early adulthood, exploring anxieties and obsessions often repressed or sublimated (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, Love and Death (exhibition catalogue), Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2005, p. 57). The tense body contortion and harsh facial expression in the present work are a powerful reflection of the artist's adolescent identity issues that characterize so much of his art. The exposed body seems to be floating in space, helplessly imprisoned by its truncated arms, adding to the highly expressive quality of the work.  

In technical terms, the development of Schiele's work in 1910 is such that it leaves all prior efforts far behind. Jane Kallir noted: "There is no precedent for the radical, garishly twisted nudes that appear almost at the very start of the year. The gaudy colouring and wild gestures are not even hinted at in previous work. Pigment is scored by the flow of water and the tug of the brush in a manner that is more directly responsive to the contours of the surrounding drawing than to the dictates of three-dimensional likeness. [Schiele] juxtapositions flat shapes with brightly mottled flesh tints [and his] drawings derive their primary structure simply from the negative space around the figure. It is apparent that Schiele wants to achieve an unbroken flow of pigment within broader, conceptually self-contained areas. By varying the density of his washes and allowing different colours to blend or overlap, he is able to produce a variety of effects" (Jane Kallir, op. cit., 1998, pp. ꧙37-38 & 391). ✱;   

The present work reflects the artist's status as one of the most gifted draughtsmen of the twentieth century and exemplifies his avant-garde and daring depictions of the human body. Commenting on the evolution of Schiele's style and his unrestrained ambition and devotion to his art, which gave rise to such expressive works as the present male nude, Jane Kallir wrote: "Egon Schiele's life and work comprise the quintessential coming-of-age story, that of a young man striving inexorably toward what was outside his grasp. Schiele's youthful solipsism and artistic ambition often brought him face-to-face with practical difficulties - among them financial straits and societal disapproval. But it was also his ambition that propelled his technical and stylistic development at such an astonishing pace; indeed, one of the most remarkable aspects of Schiele's short life is the ground that he covered in his career before his death in 1918, at the age of twenty-eight" (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele, Drawings and Watercolours, New York, 2003, p. 8).