Artist : SCHIELE Egon (1890-1918)
Title : Two Reclining Nude Girls, 1914
Medium : Lithograph on classic Rives Artist paper in ivory color 270g
Type of work : Lithograph published in 1200 copies after the original drawing by the artist. It was printed on a flat machine, Marinoni-Voirin in Paris
Dimensions : 50 cm x 64 cm
Condition : Good, presence of a slight central fold, the lithograph being folded in half in the portfolio. It will be attenuated if supervision.
Provenance : Workshop of the painter, the invoice engages the responsibility of the gallery as to the authenticity of the work.
Artist's biography : Egon Schiele was born on June 12, 1890 in Tulln, near Vienna, to a father of German and Protestant origin and a mother of Czech and Catholic origin. Egon’s father died in 1904, leaving three children: Egon, Mélanie and Gerty, with whom the artist had a passionate relationship throughout his life. A little studious student, Egon entered the Vienna Academy at the age of sixteen. In 1908 he met Gustav Klimt, whom he was influenced by. Threatened with dismissal, he decides to leave the Academy. He then leads a chaotic life. Neglecting and refusing any concession, he quarrels with most of his patrons. In 1911, he linked up with an old Klimt model. Seventeen-year-old Wally was his companion for five years, supporting him in the most difficult times: he was jailed in 1912 on a false charge of kidnapping and rape of a minor. In 1915, he left Wally and married. Enlisted as a volunteer, he went from barracks to barracks, but never to the front lines. Back in Vienna at the beginning of 1917, he enjoyed success as a social portrait painter. On October 28, 1918, his pregnant wife died of the Spanish flu. On October 31, Schiele also passed away. From his school years, Schiele demonstrated an ability to draw extremely quickly. The human figure and the nude will be his main sources of inspiration. Due to lack of funds, he first asks his sister, poor children or the patients of a women's clinic. Subsequently, his partner Wally, then his wife, will be his main models. “Your drawings will always please connoisseurs and even a few non-connoisseurs,” wrote a Viennese merchant. Indeed, his erotic works are sought after by amateurs, despite a sometimes brutal, even morbid vision. Disarticulating bodies, Schiele gives his models the impersonal faces of rag dolls. The shapes, first enhanced with watercolor and underlined with gouache, become purified, leaving the line all its power. Schiele, who knew little of the foreign art of his time, follows the tradition of the great Germanic designers.
This description was developed by us following our expertise and the various reference books on the artist in our possession, any copying is therefore prohibited.
