Fragment of a Page from a Sketchbook with a Compositional Draft for Stein on the Danube II, 1913, c. 1913

In 1913, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) created four views of the town Stein on the Danube, two of which he executed in a large format. One, Stein on the Danube II, is housed today by the Leopold Museum, and was exhibited in September 1917 at the famous Österreichische Kunstausstellung [Exhibition of Austrian Art] at Liljevalchs Konsthall in Stockholm. Schiele frequently created sketches which provide points of reference for the painterly execution of his canvases. There is an extant page from one of his sketchbooks which clearly shows a view of Stein on the Danube: The distinctive church tower of Frauenbergkirche rises up into the sky, with the tower and the onion-shaped roof of Saint Nicholas parish church to the right, and that of the Minorite church to the left. The artist hinted at the roofs of the surrounding houses with only a few strokes. Schiele painted both the view of Stein as seen from the opposite shore of the Danube and, as in the present case, the view from the vineyards behind the town and towards the Danube. Naturally, the artist was not interested in a topographically and architecturally correct rendering, rather, he gave priority to artistic license in terms of composition and image structure.

KJ, 2024