Details
The image
A figure drawn with a hard, economical line, the body awkwardly posed and cropped by the edge of the sheet, colour applied thinly to a few areas. Hands and feet are exaggerated and the surface is left visible everywhere the line does not reach.
Where it comes from
Schiele drew the body as something seen up close, without flattery and without distance: the line is quick, the pose is chosen to look uncomfortable and the empty paper does as much work as the marks. He died in 1918 at twenty-eight and his work entered the public domain in Europe in 1989, which is why it circulates so widely on paper.
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.
In company
If the wall is to hold another sheet, the rest of the Egon Schiele collection follows the same rules.Avoid hanging it beside other figurative portraits, two faces compete directly rather than conversing.
