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Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant, 1912

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil, opaque color on wood
32.2×39.8 cm

Artists

  • Egon Schiele

    (Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
Egon Schiele (1890–1918) explored the depiction of his own face, his own body, his own personality more intensively than any other artist in Vienna around 1900. This made his name a synonym of Viennese Modernism as a visual manifestation of one of the time’s central themes: the crisis of the individual.
The Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant created in 1912 is one of Schiele’s best-known works today and shows the artist at the height of his creativity. Nothing is left to chance in the balanced composition, every line finds its continuation or a corresponding counterpart: The head and the body are fragmented by the horizontal edges of the picture; the impact of these dark areas is reflected by the bold red of the Chinese lantern plant. Schiele’s head is turned to the right, while his gaze fixes directly on the observers in a contrary movement – the artist presents himself as fragile and self-confident at the same time. Schiele conceived the work as a counterpart to the simultaneously created Portrait of Wally Neuzil, a portrait of his partner at the time, which explains the strangely eccentric composition of both paintings.

VG, 2022

A closer look

The artwork explained by
curator Verena Gamper

YouTube-Video

Audio

Audio for children

Audio for adults

Object data

Artist/author
  • Egon Schiele
Title
Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant
Date
1912
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil, opaque color on wood
Dimensions
32.2×39.8 cm
Signature
Signed and dated lower right: EGON SCHIELE 1912
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 454
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.
  • Wally Neuzil. Ihr Leben mit Egon Schiele, hrsg. von Diethard Leopold/Stephan Pumberger u.a., Wien 2015 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 27.02.2015-01.06.2015).
  • Egon Schiele. Melancholie und Provokation, hrsg. von Elisabeth/Diethard Leopold, Wien 2011 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 23.09.2011–19.04.2012).
  • 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: P233
  • Leopold 1972/2020: 211
  • Natter 2017: 118
  • O. Kallir 1966: 151
  • O. Kallir (Nirenstein) 1930: 104
Keywords
man/boyself-portraitself-portrait of artistjacket/coat/capeflowers

If you have further information on this object, please contact us.

Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Heinrich Mayer, Wien (vor 1918 bis 1938); (1)
Josef und Richard Parzer, Wien (1938-1956); (2)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1956-1994); (3)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Brief von Dkfm. Peter Parzer an Dr. Patricia Spiegelfeld vom 21.06.2002
  2. Sonja Niederacher, Egon Schiele. Selbstbildnis mit Lampionsfrüchten, Dossier vom 30.04.2011, S. 4
  3. Archiv des Leopold Museums, Kaufvertrag vom 24.04.1956

For provenance related information, please contact us.

Search in collection

man/boyself-portraitself-portrait of artistjacket/coat/capeflowers