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Lot Essay
*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice in the back of the catalogue.
A combination of an exquisitely fine line and expressively-brushed areas of rich color, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse (Seated female semi-nude in Green Blouse) is a powerful work that marks the pinnacle of Schiele's achievements as a draughstman.
In this psychologically haunting work, Schiele depicts a young girl dressed solely in a green blouse, staring provacatively at the viewer with disquieting nonchalance. Seated with her legs set wide apart and her pubic hair partially visible beneath the edge of her blouse, this young girl transfixes the viewer with a questioning stare that, given the state of her undress, immediately endows the work with an irresistible erotic energy. With her form magically rendered using the merest hint of line, this unknown model's pose is seemingly one which Schiele deliberately calculated for this erotic effect. Her fingers are splayed under her chin in mock contemplation, her upraised arm reinforces the central axis of the work extending between her beckoning eyes and the pubic region between her splayed thighs.
For Schiele, eroticism was a "mystic" energy rooted at the heart of existence and, because of its connection with procreation, intrinsically linked to the creative powers of the artist. In this respect, it was also "sacred." "I paint the light that comes out of all bodies--Erotic works of art are sacred." Schiele once wrote to his uncle and guardian in an attempt to explain the conscious philosophical basis behind what was then considered the shocking or deliberatively provocative nature of his work. While Schiele also clearly found that erotic works provided a ready source of income, for him, as for Freud, sexuality was also a key which could be used to explore the inner life of the mind.
Schiele's drawings and watercolors of 1913 reveal the artist's increased interest in the depiction of the inner psychology of his sitters as well as his more usual exploration of the way in which a pose or gesture could be used to suggest mood and emotion. While slightly more guardedly pornographic than many of Schiele's drawings on this theme, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse is a work that nonetheless demonstrates this aspect of his work by coaxing the complicity of the viewer and engaging him in an intense exchange of mutual eye contact and covert solicitation.
A combination of an exquisitely fine line and expressively-brushed areas of rich color, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse (Seated female semi-nude in Green Blouse) is a powerful work that marks the pinnacle of Schiele's achievements as a draughstman.
In this psychologically haunting work, Schiele depicts a young girl dressed solely in a green blouse, staring provacatively at the viewer with disquieting nonchalance. Seated with her legs set wide apart and her pubic hair partially visible beneath the edge of her blouse, this young girl transfixes the viewer with a questioning stare that, given the state of her undress, immediately endows the work with an irresistible erotic energy. With her form magically rendered using the merest hint of line, this unknown model's pose is seemingly one which Schiele deliberately calculated for this erotic effect. Her fingers are splayed under her chin in mock contemplation, her upraised arm reinforces the central axis of the work extending between her beckoning eyes and the pubic region between her splayed thighs.
For Schiele, eroticism was a "mystic" energy rooted at the heart of existence and, because of its connection with procreation, intrinsically linked to the creative powers of the artist. In this respect, it was also "sacred." "I paint the light that comes out of all bodies--Erotic works of art are sacred." Schiele once wrote to his uncle and guardian in an attempt to explain the conscious philosophical basis behind what was then considered the shocking or deliberatively provocative nature of his work. While Schiele also clearly found that erotic works provided a ready source of income, for him, as for Freud, sexuality was also a key which could be used to explore the inner life of the mind.
Schiele's drawings and watercolors of 1913 reveal the artist's increased interest in the depiction of the inner psychology of his sitters as well as his more usual exploration of the way in which a pose or gesture could be used to suggest mood and emotion. While slightly more guardedly pornographic than many of Schiele's drawings on this theme, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse is a work that nonetheless demonstrates this aspect of his work by coaxing the complicity of the viewer and engaging him in an intense exchange of mutual eye contact and covert solicitation.