Details
The image
A woman seated with her legs drawn across the sheet at an angle, the knees sharp, the hands clasped, the clothing reduced to a few dark shapes. The line is quick and the paper is left bare over most of the surface, so the figure seems to be emerging rather than sitting.
Where it comes from
Schiele drew the body as something seen up close and without comfort: joints emphasised, poses chosen to look unstable, colour applied thinly to only a few areas. He died in 1918 at twenty-eight and his work entered the public domain in Europe in 1989, which is why his drawings appear so often on paper and why the bare ground of the sheet is part of the image rather than a failure of finish.
On the wall
It holds a room with a certain tension, so it suits a study, a hallway or a bedroom with simple furniture. Because the line is the subject, it needs light and a wall that is not busy. In a group it should be given space, the figure needs air around it to keep its awkwardness.
In company
The spacing and the weight of line carry across the whole Egon Schiele collection.Avoid hanging it beside other figurative work, two bodies on one wall compete instead of conversing.
