Fragment of a Page from a Sketchbook with Compositional Draft for Sawmill, 1913, 1912 - 1913

The present sketch hails from a Sketchbook by Egon Schiele (1890–1918), dated 1912/13. It is considered a compositional draft for the 1913 painting Sawmill, which is kept today in a private collection in the US. The oil painting was once owned by the collector Franz Hauer (1867–1914), who had bought it directly from the artist in the year of its creation. In the painting, the elongated mill with a colorful shingle roof, which the artist hinted at already in the sketch, is embedded into a dark green landscape. The mountain range, which appears high on the horizon in the background, can also be discerned in the sketch. In the draft, there is another house in the background to the right, which Schiele did not include in the oil painting. In the vigorously drawn sketch, structured through form elements, the sawmill takes up more room, while in the painting, it is the dark landscape surrounding the building that occupies most of the canvas.

MA, 2023