Egon Schiele (1890-1918)

This particular work of 1908 was executed two years after Schiele enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and is one of his earliest attempts working with watercolour and gouache. Schiele has infused Expressionist influences into this portrait by depicting his model with striking blue hair. Like many of his original portraits of the time, Schiele probably chose to depict a protagonist of the Vienna underground scene, thus contributing to the iconographic revolution brought about by the Secessionist Movement.