More than most artists, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) explored gestures, facial expressions, grimaces and various forms of physical expression, and attached great importance to extremities in his works from the beginning. Aside from the face, they were the important physical means of expression to him. This can be seen especially clearly in his self-portraits. He often placed hand gestures parallel to the image plane and without any foreshortening. Spreading his fingers in various ways, he used these gestures like ciphers that only the artist could interpret, for instance in the paintings
Lyricist,
The Self-Seers II (Death and Man),
Self-Portrait with Lowered Head and
Self-Portrait with Splayed Fingers. He invested his artistic poses for the photographer Anton Josef Trčka (1893–1940), too, with an exaggerated, eccentric flair. In his numerous self-portraits, he experimented with emotional means of expression and deliberately alienated facial expressions to stage himself. In a letter, dated 20th September 1910, to Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), he addressed the aspects of body language and facial expressions: “This way, I can speak to all the other people, but wearing a mask, then it is possible. – And how many people’s expressions are fake, just like I can wear a fake one. But hands are truth itself, they are always unmasked when I speak with them – as I often do in my self-portraits!”
LScr, 2024
