Lot Essay
Arthur Roessler (1877-1955), author and art critic, was one of the first to recognise Egon Schiele's talent. From 1909 onwards Roessler advised and helped Schiele, and in 1910 he had his first portrait painted by the artist. Roessler, the art editor of several Vienna newspapers, published many articles on the artist, and dedicated four monographs to Schiele between 1918 and 1922. Through his many publications on Schiele and his contemporaries, Roessler proved himself paramount to the development of the young generation of artists in Austria at the beginning of the twentieth century.