Egon Schiele – Autumn Tree in Stirred Air

Autumn Tree in Stirred Air is a 1912 painting by Egon Schiele: a bare tree whose dark branches loop and spread across a grey, windswept sky, above a thin band of black hills and rust-brown ground. The original, 80 x 80.5 cm, is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna. We paint it by hand in oils on canvas at the size you choose, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval.

Autumn Tree in Stirred Air – Egon Schiele

What does the painting show?

A single bare tree fills almost the whole square. Its pale, whitish trunk rises from the lower edge just left of centre and nearly dissolves into the background, so what you see first are the branches: two thick dark-brown limbs curve up and round in a wide loop, and from them a web of thin black twigs runs out to every edge. The sky behind is built from grey, white and blue-grey patches, with faint touches of pink and a few small ochre-yellow dots. Along the bottom a strip of black hills and a band of rust-brown ground close the scene. At the centre right the Austrian painter signed it in small capitals, EGON SCHIELE 1912, set in three lines.

Why do people love it?

Because it turns a single tree into something almost human. The branches look like nerves or veins, tense and searching, and the tree seems to hold out against the wind rather than bend with it. The colour is quiet, greys and browns with only a little warmth, yet the drawing of the twigs makes the surface restless and alive. You can look at it for a long time: close up, the layers of grey paint and the fine lines; from across the room, one strong, twisting shape against a pale sky.

Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?

Among the landscapes and trees into which Schiele wrote human moods. The same lonely, bare tree appears in Small Tree in Late Autumn, painted shortly before, and trees set against a wide sky return in Four Trees and in Setting Sun. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, and there is more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele.

How is our hand-painted version made?

Each copy is a hand-painted painting made for your order, not a print: one of our painters builds it up in oils, stroke by stroke. Our copy is oil on canvas, like the original, in which Schiele also used pencil. The hardest part here is the branches: every twig has to come from one sure, dark line, thin where the branch thins and fuller where it carries weight, and none of it may look traced. The greys of the sky need several layers so that the patches keep their slightly broken, weathered look. When the work is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. We have not yet photographed this work in our workshop; photographs will be added to this page once we have them.

Which size for which wall?

The original measures 80 x 80.5 cm, so our 80 x 80 cm comes closest to it. The smaller sizes, 50 x 50 cm or 60 x 60 cm, suit a hallway, a study or the wall above a desk, where the web of branches reads like a drawing. Above a sofa or a sideboard, 90 x 90 cm or 100 x 100 cm give the tree room to spread; on a large wall, in a stairwell or in a tall room, the sizes from 140 x 140 cm to 170 x 170 cm make it the centre of the room. Being mostly grey and white, this canvas painting sits calmly on light and dark walls alike. Hang it with the centre at eye level, about 145–150 cm from the floor.

Custom size, stretcher bar and frame

If none of the fourteen sizes suits your wall, we paint the work to your own measurement. If you choose YES under the Podokvir (stretcher bar) option, the canvas comes stretched on a wooden stretcher bar, ready to hang. Our 3D application is for choosing a frame only. The frame is chosen separately and need not be part of the order.

Delivery and guarantee

We paint to order and deliver to sixteen countries in the European Union, among them Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Germany and France; the United Kingdom and Ireland are not currently among them. The work arrives protectively packed and, if you chose YES under Podokvir, stretched on a stretcher bar. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work to approve. Production time depends on the size and on the studio’s workload. Every order is covered by our Returns and Refund Policy.

Frequently asked questions

Is it an autumn tree or a winter tree?

The Leopold Museum lists it under this title and gives Winter Tree as a second one. The tree has no leaves, so what is visible fits either season, and the museum’s keywords name both autumn and winter.

What does the tree stand for?

The museum reads it not as a true landscape but as a tree with human feelings: in its bareness and isolation it embodies the feeling of being exposed and lonely, and also the will to survive. In his landscapes Schiele often reached the same intensity of expression as in his portraits and self-portraits.

When and where did Schiele paint it?

In 1912, in Neulengbach in Lower Austria, where he was living at the time; he signed and dated it at the centre right. A photograph from the same year, taken by the Atelier Ungar in Neulengbach and now in the Leopold Museum, shows him standing behind it on an easel.

Who owned it before the Leopold Museum?

It was first shown in 1912 at the Hagenbund in Vienna, and a few months later Magda Mautner Markhof bought it. The museum’s provenance then names Klaus Grasmayer in Salzburg from 1944 and Rudolf Leopold from 1954; in 1994 it passed to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.

Where is the original?

In the Leopold Museum in Vienna, under inventory number 449. It is painted in oil and pencil on canvas and measures 80 x 80.5 cm.

Does it work as a gift?

Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, there is a gift voucher.