Sale: Dorotheum, Vienna, December, 10-18, 1985, lot 319

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, May 12, 1999, lot 340

Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works,  New York, 1990, no. D. 1539, illustrated p. 527

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. D.1539, illustrated p. 527

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Schiele's depictions of nudes are some of his most experimental compositions. Magdalena Dabrowski writes that in Schiele’s work of 1913-14, "there is a change in the quality of line which turns angular, harsh, and full of inflection. In addition, the figures presented in a new way: volume is suggested by the bare background of support. The decisively drawn line now implies volume through the whiteness and light-reflectiveness of the paper. The expressive quality is enhanced either by the placement of the figure at an angle, or through constricted gestures of the figure placed in the center of the sheet” (M. Dabrowski, “Egon Schiele: Master of Expressive Form,” Egon Schiele, The Leopold Collection, Vienna, (exhibition catalogue), New York, 1997, p. 22).

In the present work, Schiele draws the figure from the side looking down, an awkwa🎀rd angel that, as Dabrowski describes, is typical of this period. The model’s body is folded into the space of the composition, recalling Degas’ depiction of bathers in his late work in which figures are viewed from strange angles, often from above. As opposed to Schiele’s earlier nudes that usually de-emphasized the flesh of his figures, the present work shows the artist’s new engagement with the physical structure of his model’s body, a body with decidedly more weight than the skinny, adolescent figures he drew in the preceding years. With expressive dabs of blue, green and brown against the pale tone of the paper, Schiele contrasts the volume of the figure’s body with the flat linear pattern of the chemise worn on her upper torso. The mask-like features of the model’s face can thus be read as a move away from an individual portrait and toward a transformation of the body that is characteristic of Schiele’s art. This work shows the ways in which Schiele’s various strategies of composition, linear definition and application of color move the body from model in space to picture on paper.