14/internal/media/dispatcher/94301/fullPortrait of the Artist's Wife, Edith Schiele1918[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvas“One evening Schiele was invited with his wife. She was completely obscured by her tousled blonde hair and a shy hesitancy,” wrote a friend of the artist’s about the young couple. They had married in 1915; three years later the Expressionist artist painted his wife with a highly sensitive gaze. It would be the first of his paintings to be acquired by a museum. But in the eyes of the then Director of the Belvedere (called the Österreichische Staatsgalerie at the time) it was too “arts-and-crafts” and vivid, whereupon Schiele reworked Edith’s dress in more muted hues. Technical analysis of the painting in 2018 brought this original version to light. This has been reconstructed and is shown here beside the final version of the painting.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/1029/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/94715/fullVictor Ritter von Bauer1918[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasPaintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/1955/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/94719/fullSquatting Couple (The Family)1918[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasA man and a woman, both nude, are crouching in a dark room. A child peers out from between the woman’s legs. Positioned protectively behind them both, the man with alert eyes reveals Schiele’s features. His bony body contrasts with the woman’s soft curves, who looks down, lost in thought. Despite their physical proximity, the two bodies appear isolated. Schiele’s own family would never come into existence. His wife Edith died of Spanish flu on October 28, 1918, when she was six months pregnant. Egon Schiele died three days later. Art critic Berta Zuckerkandl thereupon first used the title “The Family” for Squatting Couple.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3071/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/94305/fullDr. Hugo Koller1918[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasDr. Hugo Koller (geb. 1868) war Arzt und Physiker. Seine Frau war die Malerin Broncia Koller-Pinell (1863-1934).Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3090/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/83174/fullThe Embrace1917[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvas Egon Schiele shows two lovers intimately embracing in an abstract space. Sprawled on a crumpled sheet, they cling to each other, while their lower bodies appear to be drifting apart. Schiele does not focus on a provocative display of nakedness. He dispenses with explicit poses and piercing gazes. Yet the bodies are still vehicles of inner states. Instead of the figures’ identities, the artist places universal themes at the heart of this depiction. Schiele’s image tells of desire and separation anxiety, tenderness and despair. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3232/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/4121/fullPortrait of Dr. Franz Martin Haberditzl1917[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasDer Kunsthistoriker Prof. Dr. Franz Martin Haberditzl (1882–1944) war von 1915 bis 1938 Direktor der Österreichischen Galerie.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/10519/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/83378/fullMother with Two Children III1915-1917[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasPaintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3267/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/84004/fullDeath and Maiden1915[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasMortality and death are existential themes that Schiele ventured to address time and again—here associated with a biographical event. It shows a couple, the young woman clinging with both arms to her lover. The man, a self-portrait of Schiele, stares into space. The fragile balance—the artist is alluding to this in the figures’ unstable poses—seems as if it could shatter at any moment. The girl is his long-term partner and model Wally Neuzil. He had split up with her to marry Edith Harms, who was from a middle-class family. After their separation, Neuzil trained as a nurse. In 1917 she died of scarlet fever during her wartime deployment.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/1968/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/4507/fullHouse Wall (Windows)1914[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasRoughly plastered and riddled with cracks, the façade of the house shows all the traces of time. It is punctuated with windows in an irregular arrangement. Each window is unique: sometimes open, sometimes closed, every single one has different colors. Filling the picture space, the composition tells us nothing about the surroundings. Only a narrow path at the base of the image indicates space. It was probably a building in Český Krumlov (Krumau), where Schiele’s mother was born, which had inspired the artist on one of his sojourns in the town. Heightening the tactile effect, Schiele used paint that resembled plaster on a real façade. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3072/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/110724/fullSunflowers I1911[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasWithered and parched, the brown leaves droop. Large flower heads gaze feebly at their young blooms below, but even these small fresh blossoms cannot halt the decay. Like Gustav Klimt, Schiele’s penchant for sunflowers was probably inspired by Vincent van Gogh. However, the young painter radically departed from Klimt’s decorative legacy. Instead, Schiele’s expressive works are full of contortions, distortions, and deformations. Even individual sunflowers become a reflection of spiritual turmoil and a symbol of all that is transient. “I am human. I love death and I love life,” Schiele once declared.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/8294/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/24281/fullCity on the Blue River II1911[Egon Schiele]Egon SchielePencil, gouache and oil on primed woodPaintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/13367/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/4830/fullThe Reiner Boy (Portrait of Herbert Reiner)1910[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvas In 1910 the renowned orthopedic specialist Max Reiner commissioned a portrait of his five-year-old son Herbert from the young painter Egon Schiele. The artist depicted him in front of a blank surface and wearing a red garment that envelops him like a loose cloak. There are no objects to indicate the child’s age. Rather, his strikingly coarse hands appear much older than the sitter himself and contrast with the boy’s radiant, innocent gaze. Schiele painted The Reiner Boy together with a series of portraits that are all in a square format and share similar compositions. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3521/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/94300/fullEduard Kosmack1910[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on canvasThe sitter is like a hypnotist casting his spell over us. Beneath an extremely high forehead, his penetrating gaze hits us full on. Kosmack’s bony hands and the arms pressed close to his body emphasize his withdrawn character. All that interrupts the strict symmetry of the portrait is the sunflower on the right. The figure of the publisher contrasts powerfully with the light background, its flat, planar character still closely resembling the art of the Vienna Secession. Yet Schiele’s expressive style is already visible here: gestures, body language, and facial expressions are now the principal elements of his portraits. The body has been transformed into a vehicle of human emotions.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3456/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/70817/fullHäuser im Winter (Blick aus dem Atelier)1907/1908[Egon Schiele]Egon SchieleOil on cardboardPaintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/4244/rdf