Revelation, 1911

Egon Schiele (1890–1918) rarely commented on the content of his works. An outstanding exception is the Letter from Egon Schiele to Hermann Engel, written in September 1911, in which he expressed his thoughts on this painting: “’The Revelation’! – The revelation of a certain being; it may be a poet, an artist, a sage or a spiritualist. – Have you ever felt the impact made by a great personality on their environment? This would be one. – The picture must emanate light from within itself, the bodies have their own light which they consume throughout life; they burn up; they are unilluminated. – The figure on the reverse? – One half is supposed to portray the vision of such an extraordinary person. The person who is under his spell, enthralled by him, kneels, bows to the great man, who sees without having to open his eyes, who is being consumed, who emits an orange or differently colored astral light in such excessive measure that the prostrate figure merges with the great figure as if hypnotized. – To the right everything is reds, oranges and saturated browns, to the left is the being similar to him who is different yet equal to the great. – (Positive and negative electricity merge.) This is meant to symbolize that the small kneeling figure is merging into the great radiant figure. These are some explanations of my painting ‘The Revelation’!”

VG, 2021