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拍品专文
Executed in 1913, Stehende halbnackte Torsi (recto); Von oben gesehene, vornübergebeugte weibliche Gestalt (verso) is a dynamically staged, double-sided work by Egon Schiele, showcasing the dramatic potential the artist found in unexpected views of the human figure. At this time, Schiele was exploring a more three dimensional, volumetric approach to the body in his work, often using dramatic foreshortening to emphasize his model’s physicality on the page. Last exhibited almost fifty years ago, the present work has remained in the same private collection since 1979.
Combining vivid color with confident line drawing, Stehende halbnackte Torsi is one of a concentrated series of inter-related drawings and watercolors in which Schiele focuses solely on cropped, fragmentary depictions of the body. In these works, he often deemphasized the faces and identities of his models, focusing instead on particular aspects of the figure. As Jane Kallir has noted, these studies appear to be related to the large-scale allegorical paintings that occupied Schiele through much of this year, such as Die Bekehrung (which the artist never completed) and Begegnung (Selbstbildnis mit der Figur eines Heiligen) (Kallir, no. 259; whereabouts unknown). While a number of these works on paper focus on the female torso, a large proportion feature the lower bodies of a pair of figures in close proximity to one another, as seen in the present work. Schiele used both male and female models in his explorations of this pose—alternately pairing two women, two men, and members of both sexes together across the numerous sheets—playing with the ambiguity that arises when these figures are seen from behind, the partial view offering little indication as to the gender of the figures.
Here, the couple’s bodies are almost interlocked, their legs slotting-in alongside one another in an inherently intimate position that is accentuated by their semi-clothed state. Their contours are delineated with a swift, easy graphic assuredness that is more subtle, fluid and calm than the neurotic, earthy and expressive line that had distinguished the compositions of Schiele’s early maturity in 1910 and 1911. At points, dynamic slippages occur between their forms, further emphasizing the connection of their bodies. For example, Schiele allows the line delineating the right arm of the figure standing with their back to the viewer to continue into the contour of the leg of their partner, making no distinction between one form and the other. While certain elements of the scene are rendered in single, flowing strokes of pencil, other areas are worked over repeatedly, resulting in numerous pentimenti and thick, layered passages of graphite that track the movements of the artist’s hand as he reworked the composition to his liking. In Stehende halbnackte Torsi, meanwhile, the dense passages of color in the tunics provide a counterpoint to the delicately modulated flesh tones in the rest of the picture, such as the soft, rosy blush added to the skin around the ankles, knees and along the edge of the buttocks.
Schiele used the reverse of the sheet to execute another drawing, this time focusing on a clothed female figure, seated on the ground with one leg extended before her, gently leaning over as if to reach her knee. Here, the artist adopts an unusual viewpoint, looking down on his model from a height, which compresses her form into a tight bundle of lines, just off-center on the sheet. Describing Schiele’s process, his great friend and supporter Otto Benesch recalled how the artist would have reached such an impression: “When he drew, he usually sat on a low stool, the drawing board and sheet on his knees, his right hand (with which he did the drawing) resting on the board. But I also saw him drawing differently, standing in front of the model, his right foot on a low stool. Then he rested the board on his right knee and held it at the top with his left hand, and his drawing hand unsupported placed his pencil on the sheet and drew his lines from the shoulder, as it were. And everything was exactly right. If he happened to get something wrong, which was very rare, he threw the sheet away; he never used an eraser. Schiele only drew from nature” (Mein Weg mit Egon Schiele, New York, 1965, p. 25).
Combining vivid color with confident line drawing, Stehende halbnackte Torsi is one of a concentrated series of inter-related drawings and watercolors in which Schiele focuses solely on cropped, fragmentary depictions of the body. In these works, he often deemphasized the faces and identities of his models, focusing instead on particular aspects of the figure. As Jane Kallir has noted, these studies appear to be related to the large-scale allegorical paintings that occupied Schiele through much of this year, such as Die Bekehrung (which the artist never completed) and Begegnung (Selbstbildnis mit der Figur eines Heiligen) (Kallir, no. 259; whereabouts unknown). While a number of these works on paper focus on the female torso, a large proportion feature the lower bodies of a pair of figures in close proximity to one another, as seen in the present work. Schiele used both male and female models in his explorations of this pose—alternately pairing two women, two men, and members of both sexes together across the numerous sheets—playing with the ambiguity that arises when these figures are seen from behind, the partial view offering little indication as to the gender of the figures.
Here, the couple’s bodies are almost interlocked, their legs slotting-in alongside one another in an inherently intimate position that is accentuated by their semi-clothed state. Their contours are delineated with a swift, easy graphic assuredness that is more subtle, fluid and calm than the neurotic, earthy and expressive line that had distinguished the compositions of Schiele’s early maturity in 1910 and 1911. At points, dynamic slippages occur between their forms, further emphasizing the connection of their bodies. For example, Schiele allows the line delineating the right arm of the figure standing with their back to the viewer to continue into the contour of the leg of their partner, making no distinction between one form and the other. While certain elements of the scene are rendered in single, flowing strokes of pencil, other areas are worked over repeatedly, resulting in numerous pentimenti and thick, layered passages of graphite that track the movements of the artist’s hand as he reworked the composition to his liking. In Stehende halbnackte Torsi, meanwhile, the dense passages of color in the tunics provide a counterpoint to the delicately modulated flesh tones in the rest of the picture, such as the soft, rosy blush added to the skin around the ankles, knees and along the edge of the buttocks.
Schiele used the reverse of the sheet to execute another drawing, this time focusing on a clothed female figure, seated on the ground with one leg extended before her, gently leaning over as if to reach her knee. Here, the artist adopts an unusual viewpoint, looking down on his model from a height, which compresses her form into a tight bundle of lines, just off-center on the sheet. Describing Schiele’s process, his great friend and supporter Otto Benesch recalled how the artist would have reached such an impression: “When he drew, he usually sat on a low stool, the drawing board and sheet on his knees, his right hand (with which he did the drawing) resting on the board. But I also saw him drawing differently, standing in front of the model, his right foot on a low stool. Then he rested the board on his right knee and held it at the top with his left hand, and his drawing hand unsupported placed his pencil on the sheet and drew his lines from the shoulder, as it were. And everything was exactly right. If he happened to get something wrong, which was very rare, he threw the sheet away; he never used an eraser. Schiele only drew from nature” (Mein Weg mit Egon Schiele, New York, 1965, p. 25).