Egon Schiele
Seated Woman with Bent Knee, 1917 Gouache, watercolor, and black crayon on paper
This gouache and black crayon work on paper presents a female figure in a pose of unsettled, angular energy. Her limbs are bent at sharp angles, the body asserting its presence through brash line and opaque color, against a plain ground with no setting or context. Without a softness or aesthetic to mitigate confrontation, the woman’s eyes piece with not anger, but humility.
Egon Schiele, drawing from predecessors such as Gustav Klimt, adopted the decorative through a novel approach to line. Schiele depicted contorted, disturbed, and honest bodies in neutral space. The positioning portrayed in his figures became the stories of anguish and joy.
