Letter from Egon Schiele to Carl Reininghaus, 1st Jun. 1913

Transcription:

1st June 1913.

Dear Mr. Reininghaus!
It is correct that you gave me 1800 c [crowns]
last year while I gave you the certain portrait
of a painter and at least 15 drawings.
For the portrait please: 400 c
15 drawings: 225 c
625 c

Your credit thus amounts to: 1175 c.

Perhaps you will agree to the following suggestion:
You will certainly remember the new picture with the
striding figures and prophets, “Conversion”; it is
sized 200 cm x 300 cm and I recall that you
liked this picture best; of course,
it is far from finished and I would like to ask in advance,
should you be willing to purchase it for your
credit and a surcharge, that you allow me to complete it
by autumn at the latest and permit me to exhibit it;
it is not impossible, of course, that I will have
completed it in within a month. –

I think it is one of my best works yet
and I would be delighted to see a
mature and characteristic work, of which I know
that it is good and created with the most heartfelt
emotions, in

your gallery. – I do not know how far you have
gone along with me, but I know that the work
will delight you; this is why
I will reduce the price greatly and I believe
myself to be fair when I ask 2000 c for it.

I would like to add and remind you of the fact that you
gave me 1200 c for a picture sized 150 cm x 150 cm
and (16 ?) drawings in 1910, when I was only
starting out and had certainly not developed as much.

Maybe my suggestion will please you.
In that case there remained 825 c for you to pay; to me it
would make no difference if you gave them to me now
or upon completion of the work. – Please tell me what you think.

With kindest regards, hoping to see you soon.

Egon Schiele

[note added by the recipient:]
Yes, but not as a payment, rather
as an encouragement.