Monday Morning Museum: Egon Schiele

Self Portrait, 1910 by Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele – Thursday 12 June 1890 Tulln an der Donau, Austria to Thursday 31 October 1918 Vienna, Austria

Austrian Expressionist Painter

Seated Woman, Back View, 1917

"This portrait of a seated woman viewed from behind is expressive even though her face is hidden. The model was likely Schiele's wife, Edith Harms, then twenty-four, whom he married in 1915 and who died of influenza only three days before he did. Only partially dressed but with her strawberry-blond hair carefully coiffed, the figure wears a bright blue striped jacket over a white striped shirt — the attire of a respectable lady. Her lower body, however, is clad in the garments in which Schiele usually depicted prostitutes — a white lace slip and dark stockings. The marked difference between the two parts of her costume seems to reflect the artist's own ambivalent feelings about his wife, who is variously shown in his art as a cold virgin or a passionate lover." – Metropolitan Museum of Art

Last Monday’s Artist – Carleton Emmons Watkins
Next Monday’s Artist – Caspar David Friedrich

“Monday Morning Museum” logo created by Adrean Darce Brent