Lot 10 Dα

In 1913 the circumstances of Egon Schiele’s life had largely calmed down again: the previous year, 1912, had been defined by his brief prison sentence for the “distribution of indecent drawings” and his move from the Austrian provinces back to Vienna. The shocks associated with these events led to a reduction in the radicalism of his erotic images through the “introduction of an element of aesthetic distance, which places more emphasis on unusual compositions and poses”, as described by Jane Kallir (in: Egon Schiele. Aquarelle und Zeichnungen, Vienna 2003, p. 222).
The motif of our drawing of a pair of women in an intimate embrace is connected with the works “Embrace/Umarmung” and “Friendship/Freundschaft” (Kallir 1353 and 1355), and all three drawings depict the same female nudes. While the latter two works were carried out in gouache and watercolour, our image concentrates solely on drawing their contours. The formal change that Egon Schiele’s style of drawing underwent in 1913 reveals itself clearly here: his line becomes looser and more angular. This increasingly geometrical treatment has been traced to the influence of cubism, with which the artist became familiar during this period through publications and colleagues. Schiele’s concentration on formal aspects is accompanied by an increased anonymity in his models, who now often avoid eye contact with the viewer or turn their head away entirely.
Schiele deliberately leaves out details for the sake of the formal unity established by the couple. His interest is centred not around their personalities but the interwoven lines of their bodies.