Sketch Sheet with Figure Study of a Crucifixion Scene, undated

While religious themes played an important part in Egon Schiele’s (1890–1918) work, the artist hardly ever focused on scenes from the Passion of Christ – with the exception of the early work Crucifixion with Darkened Sun dating from 1907 and the 1911 landscape ”Calvary”. The present figure study, which can be interpreted as a crucifixion scene, cannot be connected to either of these works. Framed in lines forming a rectangle, the small composition sketch contains up to five greatly reduced, hastily sketched figures with outstretched arms. Similar to the Fragment of a Sketchbook Page with Figure Study, the motif of the sketch recalls a figure group in one of Schiele’s sketchbooks which he kept between 1913 and 1916.

SH, 2024