PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
Egon Schiele
LILLY STEINER
Lot. Vendu
200,000 GBP
(Prix d’adjudication avec commission acheteur)
Details & Cataloguing
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Egon Schiele
1890 - 1918
LILLY STEINER
signed Egon Schiele and dated 1918 (lower right)
charcoal on paper
44.5 by 29.6cm., 17 1/2 by 11 5/8 in.
Drawn in 1918.
Lire le rapport d'état
Lire le rapport d'état
charcoal on paper
44.5 by 29.6cm., 17 1/2 by 11 5/8 in.
Drawn in 1918.
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Jane Kallir.
Provenance
Otto & Eva Benesch, Vienna
Eva Benesch, Vienna
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in December 1981
Eva Benesch, Vienna
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner in December 1981
Exposition
(possibly) Vienna, Albertina, Egon Schiele-Gedächtnisausstellung, 1948, no. 304
Description
The sitter of this elegant portrait is Lilly Steiner (1884–1961), born in Vienna as Lilly Hofmann. Herself an artist, Steiner was a member of the Hagenbund, but only received recognition for her work after her move to Paris in 1927. She married manufacturer Hugo Steiner who commissioned architect Adolf Loos to design their Viennese house, Villa Steiner, which remains an important and significant example of modernist architecture, to this day.
The present work was executed in 1918 by which time Schiele was celebrated as a master draughtsman whose maturity was particularly evident in his renderings of female models. No longer an adolescent focusing only on their sexuality, Schiele was now able to render his female sitters with a sense of spirit and individuality, something beautifully realised in the present work. Writing about his portraiture from this period of his life, Jane Kallir observed: 'While Schiele's paintings of men can be perfunctory, suggesting a task done more for money than for love, the women in the drawings are invariably alert, vibrant human beings with a palpable presence. Just as Schiele once boldly chronicled the power of female sexuality, he now acknowledged female identity in a manner that was, for its day, hardly less radical' (Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolours, London, 2003, p. 442).
Lilly Steiner's striking facial features captivated the young Schiele, who executed another four portraits of her, one of which is held today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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