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ONLINECOLLECTION

Self-Seers II (Death and Man), 1911

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on canvas
80.5×80 cm

Artists

  • Egon Schiele

    (Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG3
In this square painting, which the artist titled Self-Seers as well as Death and Man, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) once again explores the motif of the self-portrait as the portrait of a self a crisis – an individual that has lost the security of being “indivisible”. As in an earlier version of the theme, which is now lost, Schiele breaks up the unity of the figure by adding a shadowy double. The Self-Seers aims at a heightened self-perception which exceeds rational recognition and which is accompanied by an act of distancing manifested in the figure – lost in introspection with its eyes closed – and its pale revenant. The notion of dissociation is further enhanced by a hand which protrudes into the picture from below and which cannot be attributed to either figure. Schiele’s querying, tentative drafts of the self, which express the crisis of the subject on a pictorial level, today form the arguably most virulent part of his oeuvre and serve as a symbolic representation of Austrian Expressionism.

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Object data

Artist/author
  • Egon Schiele
Title
Self-Seers II (Death and Man)
Date
1911
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
80.5×80 cm
Signature
Signed and dated lower left: S. 11.
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 451
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Rudolf Leopold: Egon Schiele. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, München 2020.
  • Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
  • Tobias Natter: Egon Schiele, Sämtliche Gemälde 1909-1918, Köln 2017.
  • Egon Schiele. Melancholie und Provokation, hrsg. von Elisabeth/Diethard Leopold, Wien 2011 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 23.09.2011–19.04.2012).
  • Edvard Munch und das Unheimliche, hrsg. von Michael Fuhr, Wien 2009/2010 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 16.10.2009-18.01.2010).
  • Wien 1900. Sammlung Leopold, hrsg. von Diethard Leopold/Peter Weinhäupl, Wien u.a. 2009.
  • Der Lyriker Egon Schiele. Briefe und Gedichte 1910–1912 aus der Sammlung Leopold, hrsg. von Rudolf Leopold/Elisabeth Leopold, München 2008.
  • Jane Kallir: Egon Schiele - The complete works. Expanded edition including a biography and a catalogue raisonné, New York 1998.
  • Otto Kallir: Egon Schiele. Oeuvre Catalogue of the Paintings, New York 1966.
  • Otto Nirenstein: Egon Schiele. Persönlichkeit und Werk, Berlin 1930.
Catalogue raisonne
  • J. Kallir 1990/1998: P193
  • Leopold 1972/2020: 173
  • Natter 2017: 54
  • O. Kallir 1966: 129 / VIII
  • O. Kallir (Nirenstein) 1930: 77 / XIV
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Egon Schiele, Wien (1919); (1)
Max Hevesi, Wien (1919); (2)
Otto Nirenstein bzw. Neue Galerie, Wien (vor 1930-1948); (3)
Galerie St. Etienne, New York (1948-1954); (4)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1954-1994); (5)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Christian M. Nebehay: Egon Schiele 1890-1918. Leben Briefe Gedichte, Salzburg u. Wien 1979, S. 495, Nr. 25
  2. Sonja Niederacher, Egon Schiele. „Selbstseher“ II („Tod und Mann“), Dossier vom 30.06.2010, S. 4
  3. Otto Nirenstein, Egon Schiele. Persönlichkeit und Werk, Berlin 1930, Nr. 77
  4. Niederacher, Schiele, S. 5; Archiv des Leopold Museums, Jane Kallir an Patricia Spiegelfeld vom 31. Mai 2002
  5. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Tauschvertrag zwischen Dr. Rudolf Leopold und Otto Kallir vom 14. Juli 1954; Archiv des Bundesdenkmalamtes, Ausfuhren AZ 1487/54, Ausfuhrbewilligung vom 15. Juli 1954.

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