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Small Tree in Late Autumn, 1911

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on wood
42×33.5 cm

Artists

  • Egon Schiele

    (Tulln 1890–1918 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG3
In his landscape depictions, Egon Schiele (1890–1918) reaches an intensity of expression that rivals that of his portraits and self-portraits. The key to this is his anthropomorphic rendering of nature, which he inscribes with human shapes and emotions. “Now I am mainly observing the bodily movements of mountains, water, trees and flowers. Everything recalls similar movements in the human body, similar stirrings of joy and suffering in the plants,” the artist writes to his collector Franz Hauer (1867–1914) in the summer of 1913. Like Autumn Tree in Stirred Air (“Winter Tree”), Small Tree in Late Autumn is not a genuine landscape. Rather, the tree in its bareness and isolation embodies the feeling of being exposed and lonely – and the will to survive. This small panel is a monumental depiction, not of a “dancing” tree swaying in the wind, but of the growth and persistence of nature – and hence also of humanity – in the face of adversity.

VG, 2021

Object data

Artist/author
  • Egon Schiele
Title
Small Tree in Late Autumn
Date
1911
Art movement
Expressionism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on wood
Dimensions
42×33.5 cm
Signature
Signed and dated lower right: EGON SCHIELE 1911.
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 459
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.
  • 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.
  • 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: P222
  • Leopold 1972/2020: 199
  • Natter 2017: 88
  • O. Kallir 1966: 144
  • O. Kallir (Nirenstein) 1930: 95
Keywords
landscape depictiontreeearthNatureautumnlonelinessfugacity/passing of time

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

Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Arthur Roessler, Wien (o.D.);
Richard Lanyi, Wien (o.D.);
Otto Nirenstein, Wien (vor 1930-1938); (1)
Galerie St. Etienne, New York (1939-1954);
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1954-1994); (2)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994)

  1. Otto Nirenstein, Egon Schiele. Persönlichkeit und Werk, Berlin 1930, Nr. 95
  2. Sonja Niederacher, Egon Schiele. Kleiner Baum im Spätherbst, Dossier vom 30.06.2010, S. 5f.

For provenance related information, please contact us.

Search in collection

landscape depictiontreeearthNatureautumnlonelinessfugacity/passing of time