Egon Schiele

Willy Verkauf, Vienna (sale: Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, Stuttgart, 20th-21st May 1960, lot 576)
Galerie Kornfeld (acquired at the above sale)
Frank C. Elmer, New York (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 14th November 1985, lot 121)
Galerie St. Etienne, New York
Galerie Daniel Varenne, Geneva
Acquired from the above by the grandfather of the present owner

New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Oskar Kokoschka and his time, 1986-87, no. 62

Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele. The Complete Works, New York, 1998,  recto: no. 1016, and illustrated p. 465 & verso: no. 1113, and illustrated p. 476 

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, glued to the mount at all four corners. There are pinholes to all four corners and to the centre of the lower edge. There are some small spots of foxing to the sheet, mainly away from the composition. There are faint creases in places, mainly along the right edge, and some studio dirt to the left of the signature. There is a small tear to the lower right corner, and the sheet is slightly time-stained. There is some brown tape to the upper right corner of the verso (as visible in the catalogue illustration). Overall this work is in 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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The present work is a rare and fascinating example of rotation in Schiele’s drawing process. The nude, drawn at first lying horizontally, is rendered weightless by the omittance of her original support, most likely a mattress laid upon the floor. Schiele’s signature, perpendicular to the subject, implies and advises a vertical reading. Kallir confirms this, writing: ‘By tipping the reclining nude upright, by allowing her to return his gaze, by violating the boundaries between subject and object, Schiele ratified the independent power of female sexuality. There was no longer a controlling male narrative holding the woman in check. The female “other” came into her own, and she could, with her [...] contorted posturing, and impenetrable stare, be scary’. (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele’s Women, London, 2012, p. 112). An accompanying note to this passage elaborates on this particularity: ‘There is a persistent tendency to exhibit and reproduce Schiele’s recumbent nudes horizontally, even when foreshortening and the signature orientation clearly indicate that the works should be viewed vertically. Rodin also signed drawings of reclining figures vertically' (ibid., p. 277).

Executed in 1912, this drawing also illustrates a new direction for Schiele’s nude sensibilities. Set against the background of his 24 day imprisonment in May 1912, and its accompanying charge of public immorality, Schiele had begun to re-evaluate both his sitters and his style. His imprisonment forced him to acknowledge that in order to pursue his artistic mission he would somehow have to accommodate the sensitivities of society at large. He ceased to use children as models, favouring instead a more mature female nude. Certainly in the present work we see a sharper line twinned with limited shading that is markedly different to some of his earlier work. Peter Vergo observes, of the period after his release in 1912, that ‘his manner of depicting erotic nudes now seems subtly different, closer to the contrived poses that characterised the nude photographs then widely (albeit surreptitiously) available’ (Peter Vergo in The Radical Nude (exhibition catalogue), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2014, p. 24). This is not to say that Schiele began to flinch away from the taboo subjects he had become known for, nor does eroticism vanish from his output. What we see is an element of aesthetic distancing, with Schiele placing more emphasis on unusual compositional angles and poses – the present work, with its 90-degree rotation, is a powerful example of his new experiments with distortion and sheet orientation.