(Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)
Kneeling female nude, signed, dated Egon Schiele 1914, pencil drawing coloured by another hand, on the other side: reclining female nude, 1914, stamp: Nachlass Egon Schiele, pencil on paper, sheet size 51.3 x 46.5 cm, framed

Jane Kallir saw this drawing in the original at Dorotheum Vienna and assigned cat. rais. no. D.1612a to “Kneeling female nude” and D.1582a to “Reclining female nude”. (notification per email).

Provenance:
The estate of the artist
Thence by descent to the family
The assumption therefore seems reasonable that the colouring could be by the hand of Schiele’s brother-in-law Anton Peschka
Private Collection, Lower Austria

„Schauen kann auch der Maler, sehen ist aber doch mehr“
Egon Schiele

“The painter too can look – but to see is a great deal more”
Egon Schiele

…Otto Benesch (art historian, director of the Albertina from 1947 until 1962), who became familiar with Egon Schiele’s works during his youth thanks to his father, has rightly called Schiele one of the “most brilliant draughtsmen of all times”. Indeed, the visual tool that Schiele created and that demonstrates his artistic originality, in fact mastery, was his personal line. He also mastered the art of emphasis and omission. More than any other graphic artist, Schiele managed to convey both shapes and emotions with mere drawings, often using nothing but outlines. Without question, Schiele as a draughtsman holds a unique position within Expressionism. Nobody else has created lines in such a masterly and expressive way: sharply rigid or supple, constructive or fragile, brittle, nervous, scrawled or tense, intermittent or strident. His expressive register is so rich that colours could be easily dispensed of (without their absence being perceived as a defect). ...

... The year 1968 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Schiele’s death. On this occasion three exhibitions took place in Vienna: the Österreichische Galerie displayed 72 paintings, the Albertina 127 sheets by Klimt and 156 by Schiele in a double exhibition entitled “Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele”, whilst the Historical Museum of the City of Vienna showed the instructive documentation “Egon Schiele, Leben und Werk” with as many as 192 items on display.
All of the aforementioned exhibitions were nigh unanimously praised in Vienna, which was also reflected in the unusually large number of visitors. – Worth mentioning in passing is also, one year later, the eccentric choice of the cell in Neulengbach in which Schiele was imprisoned from 13 until 30 April 1912 as the location for a documentary about the artist ...
Rudolf Leopold, Egon Schiele, Residenz Verlag, 1972