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Lot Essay
Executed in 1911, Auf dem Bauch liegender Frauenakt is a striking composition that dates from a period of intense exploration and innovation in the early career of Egon Schiele. Having broken away from the prevailing style of the Viennese art world, Schiele continued to develop his extraordinary command of line and to experiment with colouring techniques to create a new, emotionally charged pictorial language. Towards the end of 1910, the female nude had come to dominate Schiele’s art and continued to proliferate throughout 1911. Nude women appear in myriad poses and positions, radically twisted, appearing front on, reclining or, as in the present work, depicted from behind and above, as if the artist is standing over her outstretched body. Presenting a tightly cropped depiction of the female figure, Schiele has focused entirely on the model’s back: her jutting shoulder blades, the undulating musculature of her spine, and the tops of her black-stockinged legs. Her arms, on which she seems to be propping herself up, dissolve into soft pools of watercolour, left undefined amidst the ground of the paper.
Executed with a combination of gouache, watercolour and pencil, Auf dem Bauch liegender Frauenakt demonstrates not only Schiele’s deft ability as a draughtsman – the figure’s body is rendered with a febrile yet unerring, near-single outline – but also his mastery of the techniques of watercolour. Thin washes of soft, delicate pigment are juxtaposed in the present work with the thick strokes of bright white and black gouache that appear at either end of the figure’s body, effectively framing her. The white ‘halo’ that outlines her head and shoulders was an effect that Schiele had first employed in 1910, serving not only to strengthen the outline of the figure, but also to intensify the psychological impact of his subjects and heighten the spiritual dimension of his art. Schiele has used the subtlest hints of colour to indicate the figure’s body: gentle rose and pale orange tints on her torso lend a sense of flesh, while bolder tones of orange and red give her body a sense of vitality and heat, culminating in the fiery orange of her head which seems to pulsate with a visceral intensity, exuding a potent natural or sexual energy.
Executed with a combination of gouache, watercolour and pencil, Auf dem Bauch liegender Frauenakt demonstrates not only Schiele’s deft ability as a draughtsman – the figure’s body is rendered with a febrile yet unerring, near-single outline – but also his mastery of the techniques of watercolour. Thin washes of soft, delicate pigment are juxtaposed in the present work with the thick strokes of bright white and black gouache that appear at either end of the figure’s body, effectively framing her. The white ‘halo’ that outlines her head and shoulders was an effect that Schiele had first employed in 1910, serving not only to strengthen the outline of the figure, but also to intensify the psychological impact of his subjects and heighten the spiritual dimension of his art. Schiele has used the subtlest hints of colour to indicate the figure’s body: gentle rose and pale orange tints on her torso lend a sense of flesh, while bolder tones of orange and red give her body a sense of vitality and heat, culminating in the fiery orange of her head which seems to pulsate with a visceral intensity, exuding a potent natural or sexual energy.