0003
Egon Schiele
(Tulln 1890 - 1918 Wien)
„Bäuerinnen“
1910
gouache, watercolour, black crayon on paper; framed
31.2 x 44.5 cm
monogrammed and dated on the lower right: S.10.
collector's stamp Otto Brill on the reverse
Provenance
collection Otto Brill, Vienna and London (verso with collector's mark, Frits Lugt 2005a);
Galerie 10, Vienna;
Galerie Würthle, Vienna,
acquired from the above in 1986, since then private property, Austria
Exhibition
1974 Vienna, Galerie 10, Landschaft in der Kunst, January;
1986 Vienna, Galerie Würthle, Klimt, Schiele, Ensor, Kubin, 25.04.-07.06., no. 3
Literature
Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele. The Complete Works, New York 1998, no. D. 725, b/w-ill. p. 430
Certificate by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna, 25.10.1986, is enclosed: "Umseitige Darstellung von vier Bäuerinnen ist ein Original von Egon Schiele (Tulln 1890-1918 Wien), schwarze Kreide u. Gouache auf bräunlichem Papier (Blattgröße 27 x 27 cm), rechts unten monogr. u. datiert 'S.10.' (= Schiele 1910)."
At the time of the expert opinion by Prof. Dr. Rudolf Leopold, the sheet was folded, resulting in the square format of 27 x 27 cm.
Estimate: € 150.000 - 300.000
Result: € 256.000 (incl. fees)
Auction is closed.
The period around 1910 was a time full of upheavals and the first successes for the young Egon Schiele. In 1909, he left the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna after only three years and founded the “Neukunstgruppe” (“New Art Group”) with like-minded artists, including his later brother-in-law Anton Peschka, Rudolf Kalvach and Erwin Osen. In that same year, he also met the doyens of the Austrian art scene of the time, Josef Hoffmann and Gustav Klimt, who enabled him to exhibit his work at the “Kunstschau 1909”. Even though the situation seemed to be developing very favourably for Egon Schiele, in May 1910 he turned his back on Vienna and moved to Krumau in southern Bohemia, then still part of Austria.
The work “Bäuerinnen” (“Farm Women”) by Egon Schiele, who was just 20 years old, was probably painted in that very town. The artist has depicted four women wearing headscarves, colourful dresses and aprons, in a tightly interlocked group in a triangular composition. The harmonious arrangement of the women is thrown off balance by a fifth farm woman who is moving off to the side. Long sticks in the women’s hands suggest that they are herding geese. What is striking is that even though their faces are only vaguely suggested, their eyeless gazes are nonetheless impressively intense. By depriving them of individual facial features, Egon Schiele relegates his farm women to anonymity. The contours of the women and their clothes are delineated with sure black chalk lines and their outlines are filled in with strong colours in a combination of vibrant opaque gouache and delicately glazed watercolour technique. The colours, set in deliberate contrast with one another, already have a powerfully expressive character. Another striking feature is the combination of the dense group of figures with the complete emptiness of the left half of the canvas. This makes the figures appear lost, as if abandoned – an effect that may have irritated the former owners, as the work was for a long time shown in such a way that only the more crowded half of the picture could be seen. Yet it is precisely this abstract nothingness with which Egon Schiele confronts his figures that elevates the picture to a higher existential plane.
(Sophie Cieslar)