Egon Schiele

Estate of the artist
Otto Brill, Vienna & London (acquired before 1938)
B. Fred Dolbin, New York
Private Collection, New York (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 16, 1984, lot 160)
Acquired at the above sale by A. Alfred Taubman

Vienna, Galerie Würthle, Moderne Graphik, 1929, no. 233
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, Kubin, 1961, no. 34
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Egon Schiele (1890-1918), Watercolors and Drawings from American Collections, 1965, no. 75, illustrated in the catalogue
Darmstadt, Germany, Mathildenhohe, Sonderausstellung Egon Schiele, 2 Internationale der Zeichnung, 1967, no. 96
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Egon Schiele, 1890-1918, 1975, no. 272, illustrated in the catalogue

Rudolf Leopold, Egon Schiele: Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings, 1973, no. 298, illustrated p. 371
Nebehay, 1989, fig. 222
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1990, no. 2494, illustrated p. 640
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, no. 2494, illustrated p. 640

Executed on buff colored wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is hinged to the mount at two points along the upper edge. The right edge is slightly deckled. There is a small nick to the edge of the sheet in each of the lower corners. The sheet is lightly time stained and there is an old mat stain around the perimeter of the sheet. There is a faint flattened crease and a small associated tear running horizontally from the lower left edge towards the corner. There is a one-inch repaired tear running horizontally from the left edge just above center. Some stains from old framers tape visible on verso. This work is in overall 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.

The present work is a delightful study of the Spitalskirche in Mödling, a small town approximately nine miles south of Vienna. The term ‘church hospital’ derives from the pre-Renaissance notion of hospitals operated by small religious orders which provided food, clothing and medical care to the poor. In 1918 Schiele made two studies of the church presumably in preparation for work on the larger-scale oil painting, Stadtansicht (Mödling III) (currently on loan to the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart). Whereas in the other study Schiele shows the church at a greater distance, in the present work he makes the church the focus of the composition, capturing its majestic proportions as well as the smaller detail of the bell-tower.

Spitalskirche, Mödling was created in the same year as Schiele’s death on October 31, 1918 and arguably when he had only just reached his artistic zenith. As Jane Kallir writes: “Schiele was more than just a boy genius. He was a consummate artist, and in many respects he only reached the height of his powers in 1917-18. [...] With his innate ability to be, as he once put it, ‘all things at once’, Schiele had achieved the synthesis that had long eluded Austrian artists. Linear perfection and painterly grace were balanced harmoniously in his drawings and paintings; objective precision and philosophical profundity, the personal and the universal, the naturalistic and the spiritual, coexisted organically in his landscapes and allegories” (Jane Kallir, op. cit., p. 242).