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Crescent of Houses II (Island Town), 1915

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on canvas
110.5×140.5 cm

Artists

  • Egon Schiele

    (Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG3
This portrait of the Southern Bohemian town of Český Krumlov/Krumau, the birthplace of his mother, is one of Egon Schiele’s (1890–1918) most impressive city landscapes in terms of color and composition. The characteristic crescent of houses built close to each other can be seen clearly from the Schlossberg hill in Krumau. To emphasize the motif more strongly than in the preparatory sketch Crescent of Houses dating from 1914, Schiele discarded the group of houses in the background as well as the bridge and the opposite riverbank with the Church of Saint Judoc. The artist focused on the rendering of a dense, seemingly organic texture rather than on a faithful topographic representation. For this purpose, Schiele modified the existing architectural and stereometric basic shapes to match the premise of maximum variety. The dense building complex arches into the upper area of the picture, creating a powerful sense of depth, which is enhanced by a line of trees in autumnal colors to the left and towards the upper right edge of the picture. All structures of the terrain are subordinate to the dramaturgical narrative of this Island Town.

VG, 2022

A closer look

The artwork explained by the
art expert Alexandra Matzner

YouTube-Video

Object data

Artist/author
  • Egon Schiele
Title
Crescent of Houses II (Island Town)
Date
1915
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
110.5×140.5 cm
Signature
Signed and dated center right: EGON SCHIELE 1915
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 456
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.
  • Tobias Natter: Egon Schiele, Sämtliche Gemälde 1909-1918, Köln 2017.
  • Trotzdem Kunst! Österreich 1914-1918, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold/Ivan Ristić u.a., Wien 2014 (Ausst-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 09.05.2014-15.09.2014).
  • Egon Schiele Landschaften, hrsg. von Rudolf Leopold, München u.a. 2004 (Ausst. Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 17.09.2004-31.01.2005).
  • 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: P293
  • Leopold 1972/2020: 260
  • Natter 2017: 172
  • O. Kallir 1966: 212 / XLVI
  • O. Kallir (Nirenstein) 1930: XLII
Keywords
city/villagehousetreeroofwindowautumnislandriverKrumau

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Heinrich Böhler, Wien / St. Moritz (ab 1915-1940); (1)
Mabel Böhler, Lugano (1940-1952); (2)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1952-1994); (3)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Christian M. Nebehay, Egon Schiele 1890-1918. Leben, Briefe, Gedichte, Salzburg/Wien 1979, S. 341, Nr. 786
  2. Sonja Niederacher, Egon Schiele. „Der Häuserbogen“ II, Dossier vom 30.06.2010, S. 4; Tobias Natter, Die Welt von Klimt, Schiele und Kokoschka. Sammler und Mäzene, S. 185.
  3. Niederacher, Dossier, S. 4; Archiv des Leopold Museums, Kaufvertrag vom 04.02.1952, dort „Bogenförmiges Stadtende“; Diethard Leopold, Rudolf Leopold - Kunstsammler, Wien 2003, S. 63-65

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Search in collection

city/villagehousetreeroofwindowautumnislandriverKrumau