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Lot Essay
A fluid and complete graphic portrait of a young girl, Sitzende Frau is an outstanding example of the complete mastery of line that by 1914, Schiele had attained in his work. More subtle, fluid and calm than the neurotic, earthy and expressive line that distinguishes the works of his early maturity in 1910 and 1911, in this work Schiele has delineated the form of this demur girl with a swift and fluid assuredness that is both commanding and incisive.
Seated in front of the artist with her petticoat provocatively raised in a characteristic pose indicative of the kind of uninhibited, unselfconscious and natural behaviour Schiele encouraged among his models, her form seems almost miraculously to be conveyed using only a single flowing line. As Otto Benesch recalled, Schiele's 'artistry as draughtsman was phenomenal. The assurance of his hand was almost infallible. When he drew, he usually sat on a low stool, the drawing board and sheet on his knees, his right hand (with which he did the drawing) resting on the board. But I also saw him drawing differently, standing in front of the model, his right foot on a low stool. Then he rested the board on his right knee and held it at the top with his left hand, and his drawing hand unsupported placed his pencil on the sheet and drew his lines from the shoulder, as it were. And everything was exactly right. If he happened to get something wrong, which was very rare, he threw the sheet away; he never used an eraser' (O. Benesch, Mein Weg mit Egon Schiele, New York, 1965, p. 25).
Seated in front of the artist with her petticoat provocatively raised in a characteristic pose indicative of the kind of uninhibited, unselfconscious and natural behaviour Schiele encouraged among his models, her form seems almost miraculously to be conveyed using only a single flowing line. As Otto Benesch recalled, Schiele's 'artistry as draughtsman was phenomenal. The assurance of his hand was almost infallible. When he drew, he usually sat on a low stool, the drawing board and sheet on his knees, his right hand (with which he did the drawing) resting on the board. But I also saw him drawing differently, standing in front of the model, his right foot on a low stool. Then he rested the board on his right knee and held it at the top with his left hand, and his drawing hand unsupported placed his pencil on the sheet and drew his lines from the shoulder, as it were. And everything was exactly right. If he happened to get something wrong, which was very rare, he threw the sheet away; he never used an eraser' (O. Benesch, Mein Weg mit Egon Schiele, New York, 1965, p. 25).