Egon Schiele

Tokyo, The Seibu Museum of Art, Egon Schiele: An Exhibition of Watercolors and Drawings, 1979, no. 19, illustrated in the catalogue
Vienna, Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz; Munich, Museum Villa Stuck and Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Egon Schiele: Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, 1981-82, no. 19, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Hôtel de Ville, Salle Saint-Jean; Kaiserslautern, Pfalzgalerie; Bolzano, Museo Civico and Turin, Palazzo Reale, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele: Dessins et aquarelles, 1984-85, no. 65, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Isetan Museum; Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum; Nara, Prefectorial Museum; Kofu City, Yamanshi Prefectural Museum and Kamakura Museum of Art, Egon Schiele und Wien zur Jahrhundertwende, 1986, no. 28, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Vienna, Bawag Foundation (and travelling in Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Portugal, Czechoslovakia, Slovenia and Poland), Egon Schiele; 100 Zeichnungen und Aquarelle, 1988-97, no. 42, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

The present work is a striking example of Schiele's nudes executed in 1910, the early Expressionist period of his career characterised by bold experimentation and innovation. For the most part, the figures executed during this period are beautifully coloured with transparent flesh tones and explicit in the physicality of their poses. Delineated in sharp contours, with the woman's hair, lips and nipples rendered in jewel-like strokes of red pigment, Sitzender Frauenakt mit geneigtem Kopf und erhobenen Armen demonstrates the artist's skill as a draughtsman and his obsession with the sensuous quality of the human form. 

Discussing this pivotal early stage of the artist's career, Jane Kallir wrote: "Though the Expressionist breakthrough is heralded in some 1909 drawings, the speed and extremity of Schiele's development in 1910 are such that his work leaves all prior efforts far behind. There is no precedent for the radical, garishly twisted nudes that appear almost at the very start of the year" (J. Kallir, op. cit., p. 391). As in other works of this period, Schiele here used black crayon to produce a dark, striking contour.  In the present work, the focus of his attention is on the figure's head, her dreamy face enveloped in brightly coloured hair, as well as on the sharply outlined, angular arms that stand in sharp contrast with the soft curve of the woman's body.