Letter from Egon Schiele to Karl Ernst Osthaus, 9th May 1912

Transcription:

May 9, 1912.
Dear Mr. O. [Osthaus] You have no idea what I have gone through recently. – I was charged and jailed for 24 days because a police constable found in my studio 125 drawings of nudes, declared them obscene and confiscated them. They simply arrested me and placed me in investigative custody. I was told that children had been in my studio whom I drew in their clothes, and that they saw one of my drawings there. – I vegetated and became acquainted with prisons; I finally ceased believing in freedom; my anguish was unimaginable, I am so ruined inside. I lived out in the country, as you perhaps know, and had a very intimate bond with nature in Neulengbach. But it became so loathsome for me, so dead, so transparent. – This is why it is supremely important that I – I am not selfish – recuperate. I still have hopes and that is what life is about. – I lack the necessary means, of course, and I don’t know if you would be willing to risk a few 100 MK [marks] so that I can leave immediately for 3 or 4 months to Carinthia, where I long to go. – Don’t at all think that I have any ignoble intentions; if you only knew! But. – I don’t want to hear anything about buying, about buying pictures, that sounds rather crude. – We will trade! – After all, you have the necessary money and I will give you pictures, we will trade. No price, nothing. Do you understand me? So perhaps you can make it possible for me to depart in the next few days.
With best regards
Egon Schiele
currently Vienna 12th district Rosenhügelstr. 9.