Woman with Hat and Veil Egon Schiele

• Drawing from the year of Egon Schiele’s death • Focus on the sitter’s face, which he studies in minute detail • Likely a depiction of a woman from his close personal circle Egon Schiele drew ‘Woman with Hat and Veil’ in 1918. He executed the work in black chalk on a sheet of paper on which we see a seated woman. Whilst her dress cannot be made out in any detail apart from the neckline and a hint of a collar, and her hands disappear into an indefinable piece of fur – a hat? a muff? – the artist has particularly emphasised her face and her accessories. The woman is wearing a tall hat with a feather, along with a veil. She is looking out of the picture from the side. It is unclear who the sitter is. Initially, it was thought that Schiele’s secretary ‘Tontschi’ was the subject. Later, it was suggested that Schiele’s wife Edith could be recognised here. In her Catalogue Raisonné, Schiele expert Jane Kallir now assumes that the subject is probably Jella Pollak, née Reif. She was an art student who was in contact with the Schiele couple. Evidence of this includes mutual greeting cards, such as those sent at New Year, as well as notices of visits. What is particularly remarkable about this drawing is that Schiele produced it in 1918, the year of his death. In his final years, Schiele developed a style that remains unmistakable to this day, characterised by gaunt figures in contorted poses and elongated, knotted limbs. By comparison, the drawing on offer here is classical. Typical of Schiele is his focus on the essential. The dress is shown only as a simplified outline; the emphasis of the drawing lies on the face, to make it unmistakable – an irony of the times, then, that we are no longer able to identify it with absolute certainty today. | 1890 Tulln/Donau - Wien 1918 | Moderne Kunst | Arbeiten auf Papier | Nummer: 26x2567 | Provenance: Neue Galerie, Wien, 1948; Dr. Viktoria (Vita) Maria Künstler, Wien; Galerie St. Etienne, New York; Sammlung/Nachlass Serge Sabarsky, New York, 1980/81 bei Vorgenannter erworben; Sammlung/Stiftung Vally Sabarsky, New York.

Estimation:120.000€

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