.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Jane Kallir has confirmed the authenticity of this drawing.
Created in 1918, Egon Schiele’s Seated Model with Raised Left Knee is an audacious and daring study of the female body that demonstrates the mastery of both subject and medium that the artist achieved during the final years of his life, as he reached the pinnacle of his mature graphic style. This striking life study emerged during a period of unparalleled professional success for Schiele. His involvement in several group exhibitions in 1917, along with the publication of a folio of reproductions of his work, had brought the artist to the attention of an ever-widening audience, a trend which continued in the opening months of the following year when he was invited by the Secession to organise their annual exhibition. Here, the main room was reserved for a display of Schiele’s most recent work, allowing him to exhibit nineteen oils and twenty-nine works on paper. The event was both a critical and commercial success, resulting in a number of sales and portrait commissions for the artist, and confirmed Schiele’s reputation as the leading painter in Vienna at the time.
Executed in a complex web of interweaving lines and contours, the present work focuses on the voluptuous form of an unidentified female model as she adopts a provocative, sexually-charged pose. Rendered in undulating ribbons of thick, black crayon, the model’s figure consists of a series of soft curves and gently rounded forms, her features cast in a network of energetic and pulsating lines that flow across the page as they sculpt the body’s volumes. This approach reflects the distinct shift which occurred in the artist’s technique during this period, as he stepped away from the tense, febrile and angular lines that had formerly characterized his work, and sought a greater sense of realism and plasticity in his studies of the female form. Depicted in a state of semi-undress, her skirt lifted and her legs parted, the sitter in Seated Model with Raised Left Knee demonstrates Schiele’s penchant for capturing unusual and often explicit poses. The intimacy of the moment is enhanced by the lack of eye contact between the artist and his model – turning her head away from the artist, and by turn, the viewer, the model shields her identity, a move that conveys an impression of her shyness in the moment, whilst simultaneously enhancing the voyeuristic atmosphere of the scene. A bold depiction of female sexuality, the drawing eloquently demonstrates Schiele’s radical, intense and uncompromising artistic vision, as he sought to portray women with a uniquely erotic candour.
Created in 1918, Egon Schiele’s Seated Model with Raised Left Knee is an audacious and daring study of the female body that demonstrates the mastery of both subject and medium that the artist achieved during the final years of his life, as he reached the pinnacle of his mature graphic style. This striking life study emerged during a period of unparalleled professional success for Schiele. His involvement in several group exhibitions in 1917, along with the publication of a folio of reproductions of his work, had brought the artist to the attention of an ever-widening audience, a trend which continued in the opening months of the following year when he was invited by the Secession to organise their annual exhibition. Here, the main room was reserved for a display of Schiele’s most recent work, allowing him to exhibit nineteen oils and twenty-nine works on paper. The event was both a critical and commercial success, resulting in a number of sales and portrait commissions for the artist, and confirmed Schiele’s reputation as the leading painter in Vienna at the time.
Executed in a complex web of interweaving lines and contours, the present work focuses on the voluptuous form of an unidentified female model as she adopts a provocative, sexually-charged pose. Rendered in undulating ribbons of thick, black crayon, the model’s figure consists of a series of soft curves and gently rounded forms, her features cast in a network of energetic and pulsating lines that flow across the page as they sculpt the body’s volumes. This approach reflects the distinct shift which occurred in the artist’s technique during this period, as he stepped away from the tense, febrile and angular lines that had formerly characterized his work, and sought a greater sense of realism and plasticity in his studies of the female form. Depicted in a state of semi-undress, her skirt lifted and her legs parted, the sitter in Seated Model with Raised Left Knee demonstrates Schiele’s penchant for capturing unusual and often explicit poses. The intimacy of the moment is enhanced by the lack of eye contact between the artist and his model – turning her head away from the artist, and by turn, the viewer, the model shields her identity, a move that conveys an impression of her shyness in the moment, whilst simultaneously enhancing the voyeuristic atmosphere of the scene. A bold depiction of female sexuality, the drawing eloquently demonstrates Schiele’s radical, intense and uncompromising artistic vision, as he sought to portray women with a uniquely erotic candour.