Schiele as a Boy with Cigarette and Pocket Watch, 31st Dec. 1903

On 31st Dec. 1903, a 13-year-old Egon Schiele (1890–1918) was photographed with a pocket watch in his right hand and a cigarette casually hanging from his mouth. The slightly faded photograph shows young Egon, wearing a hat and looking at his watch, while his left hand is reaching for his coat pocket. The photograph was mounted on supporting cardboard embellished with flower tendrils. Schiele was likely photographed to mark a special occasion; the art historian Christian Bauer (*1963) suspects that it might have been the artist’s confirmation. According to Bauer, the fact that Schiele is depicted looking at his pocket watch, which is a central motif of the photograph, could indicate this, as watches were, and continue to be, traditional confirmation gifts. Whether the 13-year-old was actually smoking the cigarette, or whether it was merely used as an accessory giving him an air of coolness, is debatable. The period around 1903 was not an easy one for the young Schiele: From 1902 onwards, the health of his father Adolf Schiele (1850–1904) steadily deteriorated, and the years leading up to his death on New Year’s Eve 1904/05 had a lasting impact on the adolescent. In a poem, written in 1903, he wished his father that “God may grant him health, happiness and cheerfulness”. Between 1902 and 1906, Schiele attended Klosterneuburg high school, but the photograph was taken in his birthplace of Tulln, where he spent the first ten years of his life.

MA, 2023