Egon Schiele, 1917

In the mid-1910s, Johannes Fischer (1888–1955) created a series of photographs of his fellow artist and close personal friend Egon Schiele (1890–1918). Together with Anton Josef Trčka (1893–1940), Fischer was arguably Schiele’s most important portraitist. As in the present example, his photographs mostly show Schiele in his studio. This is probably due to the fact that the two artists kept neighboring studios at the time in Vienna’s 13th district. Schiele is looking at the camera with raised eyebrows and a serious expression. The furrowed forehead, a trademark of Schiele’s countless self-stagings, invests this portrait of the artist, too, with great expressiveness. Over his left shoulder, we can see one of his works in the background, the painting Girl (Kallir P305), created in 1917, which bears a strong compositional resemblance to the central figure in the work Three Standing Women.

LVD, 2024