Letter from Egon Schiele to Hermann Engel, Sept. 1911

Transcription:

September 1911.

Dear Dr. E. [Engel]
“Revelation”! – The revelation of a certain being; it can be a poet, an artist, a man of knowledge, a spiritist. – Have you ever felt the impression a great personality can make on the world? That would be one. – The painting must emit light from itself, the bodies have their own light, which they consume during their lifetime; they burn; they are unlit. – The figure backwards? – The one half should thus show portrayed the vision of such a great person, that the one who influences kneels down in rapture, bends over before the great one who looks without opening its eyes, who decays, out of whom streams astral light orange or other color, in such excess that the one who is kneeling flows hypnotized into the great one. – On the right everything is red, orange, deep brown and on the left is the being similar to him, which resembles the great one on the right differently. – (Positive and negative electricity unite.) It should thus mean that the small one on his knees melts into the radiant great one. That gives you some idea about my painting. “Revelation”!
Egon Schiele.

The work Revelation by Egon Schiele (1890-1918) is housed by the Leopold Museum.