Description
Bare Trees, Houses and Shrine is an early work by Egon Schiele from 1907: a very wide landscape-format scene with leafless trees, houses and a wayside shrine at Klosterneuburg near Vienna, where the Schiele family was then living. It is painted in oils and drawn in pencil on cardboard. The original is held by the Leopold Museum in Vienna under inventory number LM 473 and measures 25.3 x 15.3 cm. We paint it by hand in oils on canvas, in one of six sizes or to your own measurement, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval.
| Title: | Bare Trees, Houses and Shrine |
| Other titles: | the museum’s German title is Kahle Bäume, Häuser und Bildstock (Klosterneuburg) |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1907 |
| Original size (width × height): | 25.3 cm x 15.3 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil and pencil on cardboard |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. LM 473) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, 6 sizes from 50 x 30 cm to 165 x 100 cm, or a made-to-measure size |
Bare Trees, Houses and Shrine – Egon Schiele
What does the painting show?
The title lists what is there: bare trees, houses and a shrine – a Bildstock, one of the small built wayside pillars with a niche that stand along roads all over Austria. The trees are leafless, so the scene belongs to the cold half of the year. The place is named: Klosterneuburg, the town just north of Vienna that Schiele moved to in 1902 and where the rest of the family followed in 1904. The museum record carries no description of the scene, so we list no colours we cannot support. The format is markedly elongated, almost panoramic, which is rare in Schiele.
Why do people love it?
For the shape. The proportion is roughly 1.65 to 1, much wider than an ordinary picture, and that is exactly why it works where an ordinary picture fails: above a bed head, above a long sideboard, over a door, or in a hallway where there is little height to play with. The subject is quiet: bare trees, a few roofs, a shrine by the road. Winter scenes do something to a room that summer ones do not – they make the light in it read warmer. And this is Schiele before he became Schiele, which for many buyers is the most interesting part of his work.
Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?
Among Schiele’s early Klosterneuburg scenes of 1907. Houses and roofs stayed a subject for life; later examples in our selection are Krumau on the Vltava (The Small Town IV), Houses on the River (The Old Town) and House Wall on the River. According to the provenance in the museum record, the picture belonged to Schiele’s mother Marie Schiele before 1930; it then passed through several private hands, was with Rudolf Leopold from 1972, and has been in the Leopold Museum since 1994. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, with more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele.
How is our hand-painted version made?
A painter works every canvas in oils, stroke by stroke: a hand-painted painting made for your order, not a machine print. Two things are hard here. The first is the shape: on a canvas this elongated any error in the proportions is obvious at once, because the eye travels across it horizontally and compares. The second is the drawing – the original is oil and pencil on cardboard, so the thin lines of branches and of the shrine’s edge are not painted thickly but stay drawn; in an oil on canvas they have to be set with a fine brush and not flooded with colour. When it is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. This work has not yet been photographed in our workshop, so there are no workshop photographs of it on this page yet.
Which size for which wall?
The original is small and very wide: 25.3 cm wide and 15.3 cm high. Every size we offer keeps that elongated shape. Over a door, in a narrow niche or on a small hallway wall, 50 x 30 cm, at 136 EUR the least expensive choice; above a bed head or a chest of drawers, 90 x 55 cm; above the sofa in a smaller living room, 115 x 70 cm or 125 x 75 cm; above a long sofa or a long dining table, 150 x 90 cm; on a large clear wall, 165 x 100 cm. Prices run from 136 EUR for 50 x 30 cm to 1500 EUR for 165 x 100 cm. With an elongated picture the furniture below it should be about as long or a little longer; hang it with the centre at eye level, about 145-150 cm from the floor, or 20-25 cm above the back of a sofa.
Custom size, stretcher bar and frame
If none of our sizes suits your wall, we paint the work to your own measurement. If you choose “YES” under the Stretcher option, the canvas comes stretched on a wooden stretcher bar, ready to hang. Our 3D application is for choosing a frame only, not for showing the work on your wall. 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 painting arrives protectively packed and, if you chose “YES” under Stretcher, stretched on the 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
What is the shrine in the title?
A Bildstock: a low built or stone pillar beside a path, with a niche for a picture or small figure. Shrines like it stand along roads throughout Austria and were part of the landscape Schiele grew up in.
Where is Klosterneuburg?
Just north of Vienna, on the Danube. Schiele moved there in 1902 when he transferred to the local secondary school, and the rest of the family followed in 1904. Klosterneuburg is therefore the place he grew up in and where this work was made.
Is the painting signed?
The museum record names no signature for this work. That is not unusual among Schiele’s early pieces; the date of 1907 comes from the museum record rather than from a signature on the picture.
Who owned the painting?
According to the provenance in the museum record, Schiele’s mother Marie Schiele owned it before 1930. It was later in several private collections, with Rudolf Leopold from 1972, and has been in the Leopold Museum in Vienna since 1994.
What kind of wall suits this format?
A wide, low one. The proportion is roughly 1.65 to 1, so it works above a bed head, above a long sideboard, over a door or in a hallway. On a tall narrow wall it would be lost; an upright work is the better choice there.
Does it work as a gift?
Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, there is a gift voucher.
