Kallir Research Institute

Kallir Research Institute Foundation for the study of Austrian & German Expressionism and Self-Taught Art

Egon Schiele’s early-1913 drawing style is continuous with that of late 1912. The lines in works of this period are cris...
09/03/2026

Egon Schiele’s early-1913 drawing style is continuous with that of late 1912. The lines in works of this period are crisp and firm, and Schiele was less concerned with rendering three-dimensional volume than with the interplay of positive and negative space.

“Lady in Hood” probably depicts Wally Neuzil, the artist’s collaborator, model, and romantic partner from 1912 until his 1915 marriage to Edith Harms. Schiele has minimally embellished the subject's hands and face with transparent touches of watercolor, allowing heavily-drawn curlicues to suggest the texture of her hair. (See also the related allegorical painting, “Holy Family.”)

🎨 Images: Egon Schiele, “Lady in Hood,” 1913, watercolor and pencil on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna. Egon Schiele, “Holy Family,” 1919, gouache and pencil on parchmentlike paper.

Egon Schiele’s early-1913 drawing style is continuous with that of late 1912. The lines in works of this period are cris...
09/02/2026

Egon Schiele’s early-1913 drawing style is continuous with that of late 1912. The lines in works of this period are crisp and firm, and Schiele was less concerned with rendering three-dimensional volume than with the interplay of positive and negative space.

“Lady in Hood” probably depicts Wally Neuzil, the artist’s collaborator, model, and romantic partner from 1912 until his 1915 marriage to Edith Harms. Schiele has minimally embellished the subject's hands and face with transparent touches of watercolor, allowing heavily-drawn curlicues to suggest the texture of her hair. (See the related allegorical painting, “Holy Family.”)

🎨 Images: Egon Schiele, “Lady in Hood,” 1913, watercolor and pencil on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna. Egon Schiele, “Holy Family,” 1919, gouache and pencil on parchmentlike paper.

Set against a nearly bare canvas, the subject of Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Lady” captivates with blue-tinted skin, b...
09/01/2026

Set against a nearly bare canvas, the subject of Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Lady” captivates with blue-tinted skin, bright yellow irises and blonde curls. Dating to 1917-18, the unfinished work is likely among Klimt’s last paintings before his death in February 1918. With oil paint applied in a manner like that of a crayon or pencil, the roughly brushed outline hints at a compositional plan that never came to fruition.⁠
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The identity of the lady depicted remains a mystery. No one stepped forward to claim the painting when it entered the artist’s estate. Today the canvas hangs in the Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz.⁠
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🎨 Image: Gustav Klimt, “Portrait of a Lady” (unfinished), 1917-18, oil on canvas; Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz.

Egon Schiele saw commonalities in the life cycles, forms, and movements of people and plants. His botanical works anthro...
08/29/2026

Egon Schiele saw commonalities in the life cycles, forms, and movements of people and plants. His botanical works anthropomorphize their subjects in surprising ways, highlighting the fragility and transience of physical bodies.

Between his late teens and his premature death at 28, Schiele created more than a dozen watercolor and oil depictions of sunflowers—a motif popular among Vienna artists since Vincent van Gogh’s 1906 exhibition at the Galerie Miethke. This 1918 gouache presents three blooms surrounded by green leaves. While the topmost flower appears to have opened more recently than its drooping companions, it has also begun to wilt.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Sunflowers,” 1918, gouache and black crayon on beige laid paper.

The subject of Egon Schiele’s 1911 drawing “Sleeping Girl” (pictured here) sprawls from the upper left corner of the she...
08/27/2026

The subject of Egon Schiele’s 1911 drawing “Sleeping Girl” (pictured here) sprawls from the upper left corner of the sheet to its lowermost edge. Here, as in other figural works dating to this period, Schiele’s interest in form over three-dimensional volume and his omission of contextualizing detail transforms the model’s body into a flat, angular shape adrift in space.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Sleeping Girl,” 1911, pencil on cream simile Japan paper.

Käthe Kollwitz was deeply moved by the working-class people of Berlin, where she’d lived since her 1891 marriage to a ph...
08/25/2026

Käthe Kollwitz was deeply moved by the working-class people of Berlin, where she’d lived since her 1891 marriage to a physician whose practice served the poor. In her drawings and graphics, Kollwitz often emphasized the plight of the city’s women and children.

“Home Worker, Asleep at the Table” (1909) is a preparatory work for one of six drawings the artist published from late 1909 through early 1910 in the satirical weekly “Simplicissimus,” as the series “Portraits of Misery I-VI.” ⁠

🎨 Image: Käthe Kollwitz, "Home Worker, Asleep at the Table," 1909, charcoal on paper; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Graphic Arts Council Fund.

Egon Schiele’s drawing style in his 1914 figural works suggests an underlying structure of muscle and bone. His linework...
08/22/2026

Egon Schiele’s drawing style in his 1914 figural works suggests an underlying structure of muscle and bone. His linework and coloring together heighten his subjects’ plasticity: elaborate cross-hatching and the edging of human forms with contrasting tones (of red, green, and ochre) convey a sense of volume.

In the sheet pictured here, Schiele precisely detailed the model’s musculature, the sharp angles of her downturned face, and the folds of her raised garment. Despite working in a limited, not entirely naturalistic palette, Schiele convincingly imbued his subject with a palpable bulk.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Semi-Nude Woman Striding to the Left,” 1914, gouache, watercolor, and pencil on paper, The Albertina Museum, Vienna.

Egon Schiele’s “Expressionist breakthrough” took shape in 1910, the year he turned 20. At this phase of the artist’s de...
08/20/2026

Egon Schiele’s “Expressionist breakthrough” took shape in 1910, the year he turned 20. At this phase of the artist’s development, he chose to stress his sitters’ psychological states and personalities rather than their physical appearances. Unnaturalistic coloration, strange, contorted poses, and blank (or nearly blank) backgrounds are common features of Schiele’s pictures from this period.

While young Schiele had begun to cultivate a following as a portraitist, he found the majority of his 1910 models through his own social circle. Its traditional title of “Seated Peasant with Hat” notwithstanding, the watercolor shown here probably depicts Schiele’s friend and fellow painter (and his future brother-in-law), Anton Peschka.

🎨 Egon Schiele, “Seated Peasant with Hat,” 1910, watercolor and black crayon on paper.

Richard Gerstl is believed to have destroyed most of the paintings, drawings and documents in his studio before taking h...
08/18/2026

Richard Gerstl is believed to have destroyed most of the paintings, drawings and documents in his studio before taking his life in 1908, at the age of 25. Of the Austrian artist’s approximately 70 surviving works, only eight are drawings: all self-portraits executed in the final two years of his life.⁠
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Gerstl’s brother, Alois—who stored the remaining oeuvre for more than two decades—sought the advice of gallerist and KRI namesake Otto Kallir in 1931. Fascinated by what he saw, Kallir quickly mounted Richard Gerstl’s first solo exhibition at his Neue Galerie in Vienna, to immediate acclaim. Nearly a century later, Gerstl’s reputation and worldwide renown continue to grow.⁠
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🎨 Richard Gerstl, “Self-Portrait,” 1908, wash, pen and ink and charcoal on heavy wove paper; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the Kallir Family.

Egon Schiele’s confrontational pose and severe expression in this 1913 self-portrait suggest a readiness to leap off the...
08/15/2026

Egon Schiele’s confrontational pose and severe expression in this 1913 self-portrait suggest a readiness to leap off the sheet and brawl—as does the inscribed title, “Kampfer” (fighter). Self-portraiture had long offered Schiele a means of “playacting.” The persona he assumes here perhaps alludes to his 24-day imprisonment in rural Neulengbach the year prior (on charges of “public immorality” stemming from outrage over his erotic works).

Incarceration both sobered and galvanized the young Austrian artist, who came away from the experience better attuned to viewer sensibility, but also resolved to defend his sense of artistic mission.

🎨 Image: Egon Schiele, “Fighter,” 1913, gouache and pencil on paper.

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