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Lot Essay
As its title suggests, Die Träumende (Gerti Schiele) (Dreaming Woman, (Gerti Schiele)) is a tender watercolour portrait of Egon Schiele's youngest sister painted while she was sleeping. Combining bold colourful design with a closely observed and yet sensitive scrutiny of his sister's delicate features, this intensely worked watercolour is also a powerful psychological portrait of the inner life of a human being as expressed through the exterior contours of their body.
Die Träumende (Gerti Schiele) is one of a number of studies of sleeping figures that Schiele made at this time which also include a similar portrait of the artist's mother. Schiele was fascinated with the way in which people's inner state of mind, what Sigmund Freud was at the time establishing as their 'psychology', was physically manifested in the expressions and gestures of their bodies. Following a similar concept in this respect to neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot's idea that the body, as a material container of an inner spirit, would in some way physically reflect the interior life of the mind, Schiele was drawn towards all peculiarities and extremes of physical activity and human behaviour. His drawings and watercolours are full of studies of elaborate or eccentric gestures and expression, physical contortions and manifestations of sexual desire - the force which, like Freud, Schiele saw as the primary human drive.
For Schiele, who at this stage in his career considered himself something of a seer or psychic, the inner life of the human being was a sacred fire or mystic light that radiated like a burning passion inside them. Believing from an early age that 'everything is living dead' as he once observed, Schiele saw this inner life force as one that, immaterial in nature, struggles within the material of living beings before, ultimately, fading and dying. As it was for Nietzsche, for Schiele the world and every form in it was in a constant state flux and struggle between growth and decay. This is why, even in his most radiant portraits of youth, beauty and sexual allure, an element of unhealthiness, of sickness, disease or decay is also often present. The human body as the material encasing of the human life force was the battleground of this struggle, a manifestation of both the drives of the inner life force and of the exterior ravages of time and circumstance.
In this closely observed portrait of his sister sleeping, Schiele suggests the colourful inner life of Gerti's mind, her dreaming, by combining the delicate inward looking nature of her features closed in on themselves in sleep and also concentration with the bold rectangular patterns of colour making up her dress. Wrapped in a brilliantly coloured shawl of modern, perhaps even Wiener Werkstätte design, Gerti's fragile features form a distinct and poetic contrast. Her hair flattened out and extending vertically over the edge of the paper sheet is, in its disorder and in the density of its execution, as suggestive of the busy activity of Gerti's mind as is the vibrant patterning of her dress.
In what was a relatively rare move for Schiele, he has chosen in this work, to enclothe Gerti in the same kind of vibrant and colourful costume of modern design that Gustav Klimt often selected for his celebrated portraits of society women. Gerti's love of modern fashion is in evidence in many of the photographs of her from this period and, on account of her good looks and her brother's contacts, she became a fashion model for the Wiener Werkstatte. In this work, the sumptuous patterning of Gerti's kimono-like wrap has a similar effect to those in Klimt's portrait paintings, making the woman enclosed within such vibrant finery seem as precious, fragile and fascinating as a butterfly.
Gerti was not only an extremely pretty girl, but a favourite model of Schiele's. His relationship with her was especially close and, it appears, not without erotic implications. From adolescence onwards Gerti regularly posed naked for her artist brother and, when he was sixteen and she no more than twelve, Schiele had had the extraordinary idea of taking her by train all the way to Trieste where they spent the night in the double room of an hotel. Schiele had decided upon Trieste as it had been where their parents had spent their honeymoon.
Such was the peculiar closeness of the pair that Schiele's parents were also unhappy about their relationship. Once their father Adolf Schiele, fearful of what it might imply, had broken down the door of a room where Schiele and Gerti had locked themselves, only to discover them innocently developing one of Egon's photographs. For Schiele's part, it is clear that on some level he was in love with Gerti. His difficulty in accepting any suitors for his young sister even that of his close friend Anton Peschka whom she later married, is well documented. Gerti herself appears to have been a naturally gregarious and even flirtatious figure, a woman whose natural vibrancy clearly inspired Schiele. Much of the warmth of emotion which the artist felt towards his younger sister along with the familiarity and trust that they enjoyed is clearly in evidence in this tender and intimate portrait of her.
Die Träumende (Gerti Schiele) is one of a number of studies of sleeping figures that Schiele made at this time which also include a similar portrait of the artist's mother. Schiele was fascinated with the way in which people's inner state of mind, what Sigmund Freud was at the time establishing as their 'psychology', was physically manifested in the expressions and gestures of their bodies. Following a similar concept in this respect to neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot's idea that the body, as a material container of an inner spirit, would in some way physically reflect the interior life of the mind, Schiele was drawn towards all peculiarities and extremes of physical activity and human behaviour. His drawings and watercolours are full of studies of elaborate or eccentric gestures and expression, physical contortions and manifestations of sexual desire - the force which, like Freud, Schiele saw as the primary human drive.
For Schiele, who at this stage in his career considered himself something of a seer or psychic, the inner life of the human being was a sacred fire or mystic light that radiated like a burning passion inside them. Believing from an early age that 'everything is living dead' as he once observed, Schiele saw this inner life force as one that, immaterial in nature, struggles within the material of living beings before, ultimately, fading and dying. As it was for Nietzsche, for Schiele the world and every form in it was in a constant state flux and struggle between growth and decay. This is why, even in his most radiant portraits of youth, beauty and sexual allure, an element of unhealthiness, of sickness, disease or decay is also often present. The human body as the material encasing of the human life force was the battleground of this struggle, a manifestation of both the drives of the inner life force and of the exterior ravages of time and circumstance.
In this closely observed portrait of his sister sleeping, Schiele suggests the colourful inner life of Gerti's mind, her dreaming, by combining the delicate inward looking nature of her features closed in on themselves in sleep and also concentration with the bold rectangular patterns of colour making up her dress. Wrapped in a brilliantly coloured shawl of modern, perhaps even Wiener Werkstätte design, Gerti's fragile features form a distinct and poetic contrast. Her hair flattened out and extending vertically over the edge of the paper sheet is, in its disorder and in the density of its execution, as suggestive of the busy activity of Gerti's mind as is the vibrant patterning of her dress.
In what was a relatively rare move for Schiele, he has chosen in this work, to enclothe Gerti in the same kind of vibrant and colourful costume of modern design that Gustav Klimt often selected for his celebrated portraits of society women. Gerti's love of modern fashion is in evidence in many of the photographs of her from this period and, on account of her good looks and her brother's contacts, she became a fashion model for the Wiener Werkstatte. In this work, the sumptuous patterning of Gerti's kimono-like wrap has a similar effect to those in Klimt's portrait paintings, making the woman enclosed within such vibrant finery seem as precious, fragile and fascinating as a butterfly.
Gerti was not only an extremely pretty girl, but a favourite model of Schiele's. His relationship with her was especially close and, it appears, not without erotic implications. From adolescence onwards Gerti regularly posed naked for her artist brother and, when he was sixteen and she no more than twelve, Schiele had had the extraordinary idea of taking her by train all the way to Trieste where they spent the night in the double room of an hotel. Schiele had decided upon Trieste as it had been where their parents had spent their honeymoon.
Such was the peculiar closeness of the pair that Schiele's parents were also unhappy about their relationship. Once their father Adolf Schiele, fearful of what it might imply, had broken down the door of a room where Schiele and Gerti had locked themselves, only to discover them innocently developing one of Egon's photographs. For Schiele's part, it is clear that on some level he was in love with Gerti. His difficulty in accepting any suitors for his young sister even that of his close friend Anton Peschka whom she later married, is well documented. Gerti herself appears to have been a naturally gregarious and even flirtatious figure, a woman whose natural vibrancy clearly inspired Schiele. Much of the warmth of emotion which the artist felt towards his younger sister along with the familiarity and trust that they enjoyed is clearly in evidence in this tender and intimate portrait of her.