Self-Portrait, design 1917, cast 1980

His head tilted slightly backwards and his thick mane of hair combed back, the artist is gazing into the distance with an almost rigid, visionary expression. In 1917, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) created a three-dimensional self-portrait in clay, which makes a very immediate and solitary appearance. It is the only sculptural work in his oeuvre.
The work is not mentioned in Schiele’s archives, either. It was only on 30 June 1924 that Arthur Roessler (1877–1955) – a patron of the artist for many years and a member of the board of the Austrian Werkbund – asked Schiele’s sister Gertrude Peschka (1894–1981) for the head of clay, which was in her possession and which the Werkbund purchased in November at the latest. From the 1920s up until 1987, bronze castings with varying numbers of copies were made (cf. Self-Portrait). Eventually, the clay model was lost. The present work belongs to the castings commissioned in Bologna by the Tulln-based International Egon Schiele Society in 1980.

KJ, 2023