Description
Crescent of Houses (The Small Town V) is a 1915 painting by Egon Schiele: a dense crescent of Krumau houses seen from above, with brown and ochre roofs, yellow and white walls and lines of bright washing. The original is held by the Israel Museum in Jerusalem under inventory number 193463 and measures 140 x 109.7 cm. 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.
| Title: | Crescent of Houses (The Small Town V) |
| Other titles: | Häuserbogen (Die kleine Stadt V) |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1915 |
| Original size (width × height): | 140 cm x 109.7 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Israel Museum, Jerusalem (inv. 193463) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, 5 sizes from 70 x 55 cm to 165 x 130 cm or a made-to-measure size |
Crescent of Houses (The Small Town V) – Egon Schiele
What does the painting show?
The town is seen from above, as if from the opposite slope. Brown and ochre roofs interlock right across the middle of the canvas, and below them lie yellow and white walls with small blue, red and black windows. Lines of bright washing hang at the left and along the bottom – the only sign that anyone lives in these houses. The top left corner is filled with dark trees. No sky, no horizon, no people: the town fills the whole canvas and reads as a puzzle of roofs and walls that the eye puts together step by step.
Why do people love it?
Because it is full of detail and at the same time very orderly. The roofs run in a curve across the picture and give the composition direction, while the colour is warm – brown, ochre, yellow – with small blue, red and black accents in the windows and the washing. It is a painting that rewards looking closely: there is always another window, another washing line. Krumau was his mother’s town and a subject Schiele returned to all his life.
Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?
Among his townscapes, and the Krumau ones in particular. Related works in our selection are Crescent of Houses II, Krumau on the Vltava (The Small Town IV), The Small Town III and Krumau at Night (Dead City II). Crescent of Houses (The Small Town V) dates from 1915, three years before the artist died. 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 decide whether the copy works. The first is the layering of the roofs: each has to stay its own plane with its own brown or ochre, or the middle of the picture turns into a single brown patch. The second is the small accents – blue, red and black windows and the coloured washing – which are tiny but carry the whole rhythm; too many of them, or too regular, and the town becomes a wallpaper pattern. Like the original, our copy is oil on canvas. 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 painted and photographed in our workshop, so there are no workshop photographs of it on this page yet: the single photograph on the page shows the painting itself.
Which size for which wall?
The original is landscape and large, 140 cm wide and 109.7 cm high, and our 135 x 105 cm comes closest to it. A landscape shape belongs above longer furniture: a sofa, a bed, a sideboard or a dining table. In a smaller room, a hallway or over a chest of drawers, 70 x 55 cm and 90 x 70 cm; over a desk or in a dining corner, 110 x 85 cm; above a sofa in the living room, 135 x 105 cm; on a large bare wall, 165 x 130 cm. Because the picture is dense it needs a few steps of distance: only from there do the roofs join up into a town. Hang it with the centre at eye level, about 145–150 cm from the floor.
Custom size, stretcher 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 does Crescent of Houses (The Small Town V) show?
A dense crescent of Krumau houses seen from above. Brown and ochre roofs interlock across the middle, with yellow and white walls and small blue, red and black windows below. Bright washing hangs at the left and along the bottom, and dark trees fill the top left. No sky, no people.
Which town is it?
Krumau on the Vltava in Bohemia, the town Schiele’s mother came from. He painted the Krumau houses again and again, which is why several versions exist.
Where is the original and how big is it?
In the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, under inventory number 193463. It measures 140 cm wide and 109.7 cm high; our 135 x 105 cm comes closest to it.
Does it suit a living room?
Very well. The colours are warm and earthy and the scene is cheerful rather than sombre, so it works above a sofa, in a dining room or in a hallway. Because it is full of detail, it is best where you can step close to it.
Is this a print?
No. Every canvas is painted by hand in oils by a painter, for your order. We photograph the finished work and send you the photograph before it is dispatched.
How do I look after it?
Keep it out of direct sunlight and away from radiators and damp. Dust it with a dry soft brush; never use water or detergent on an oil painting.
Does it work as a gift?
Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, or you do not know the wall, there is a gift voucher and the recipient picks the size.
