Egon Schiele – Houses in Winter (View from the Studio)

Houses in Winter (View from the Studio) is a work by Egon Schiele of 1907/1908, a view across snow-covered roofs with a group of tall chimneys, green shutters and bare branches in the foreground. The original is in the Belvedere in Vienna under inventory number 5493; it is painted in oils on cardboard and measures only 24 x 17.8 cm, and per the museum record it is currently not on display. We make it as a hand-painted oil painting on linen, in thirteen sizes or to your own measurement, and we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.

Houses in Winter (View from the Studio) – Egon Schiele

What does the work show?

Roofs, seen close to and slightly from above. At the right rises a large ochre wall with a red tiled roof, ridge and edges lined with snow; out of it comes a group of tall grey-brown chimneys, standing in pairs against a pale cream-grey sky. A small ornamental finial sits at the top of the ridge. At the left is a lower building with two vividly green shutters, the only really saturated colour in the upper half. Between the two, a narrow red element with white bands stands upright, small but conspicuous. Below, a snow-covered surface runs across the work, and behind it a greenish-ochre fence. In the foreground thin reddish-brown branches rise, leafless.

Where was the painter looking from?

From the studio — so the title says, as the museum gives it: Häuser im Winter (Blick aus dem Atelier). Which studio that was and where it stood, the record does not say, and we do not add it. What the work itself confirms is that this is not a view from the street: the viewpoint is high, the roofs are close, and branches close off the lower edge. It is a view through a window.

Where is the signature, and why are two years given?

The signature is lower left. The record gives only “Sign. links unten: E. Schiele” — an initial, a surname and nothing else; there is no year on the front. That is why the dating is a span: the museum dates it to 1907/1908, not to a single year. When a work carries no date, the institution has to infer one from other evidence, and the honest form of such an inference is a range. We give it as it stands and do not round it to one year.

Why is it painted on cardboard and not on canvas?

What the support is, the record states: oil on cardboard. For the small works of these years that was usual — the painter worked quickly and on whatever was to hand. Later it was otherwise: the large portraits held by the same house are oil on canvas, among them the Portrait of Dr Franz Martin Haberditzl of 1917 and the Portrait of Dr Hugo Koller of 1918. Our reproduction of this work is painted in oils on linen; cardboard is a fact about the original, linen is our choice of support, and we do not let the two blur together.

How large is the original, and how large will ours be?

This is the smallest work in our Schiele selection, and the difference is worth saying outright. The original measures 24 x 17.8 cm — smaller than a sheet of A4 paper, something you hold in one hand. Our smallest size is 50 x 65 cm: that is nearly three times as much in each direction and roughly seven and a half times the area. So none of the thirteen steps comes close to the original, not even the smallest, and every version we paint is a substantial enlargement. If you want to be nearer the original size, a made-to-measure order is the only way. Enlargement suits this subject — the areas of snow, roof and chimney are large and simple — but you should know it in advance.

Why is this early work interesting?

Because it shows a painter learning to look, not a painter who already has his signature grip. The record dates the work to 1907 and 1908 and gives the painter’s year of birth as 1890; from that it follows that he was seventeen or eighteen when he made it. The subject is ordinary — the neighbours’ roofs — and that is the point: what interests him is how snow holds against brick and how chimneys cut the sky. The hard contours and the distorted bodies are not here yet.

Where does it come from and where is it now?

The Belvedere publishes a short chain of owners and we give it as the museum publishes it: Franz Zelezny, Vienna; purchased in 1962 from private ownership, Wolkersdorf. The museum also names a contact for provenance research. Who Franz Zelezny was and what relation he stood in to the painter, the record does not say, and we do not add it. The exhibition list is long for so small a work and we give it in full: 1968, 1990, “Die Tafelrunde” in 2006, “Hagenbund” in 2014–2015, the large Schiele exhibition of 2018–2019, and “Faistauer, Harta, Schiele & Co.” in 2019. The work has plainly not sat in storage. It is today in the Belvedere under inventory number 5493 and, per the record, currently not on display; the museum’s whole Schiele holding is listed on the Belvedere’s Egon Schiele page.

Where does this work sit among Schiele’s works?

Among the early, small works on cardboard, immediately beside Interior of 1907, likewise oil on cardboard in the same collection and likewise a view through an opening — there through a door, here through a window. Where the painter went afterwards is shown by the Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith Schiele of 1918. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, and there is more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele. Schiele was a younger contemporary of Gustav Klimt, and the Vienna Secession was the milieu he came out of; Viennese Expressionism is the movement he helped define, and Austrian art of the period is still read through those two names. This work is not yet an expressionist painting — that comes later — and for exactly that reason it shows what it started from.

How is our hand-painted version made?

Every canvas is painted by an artist in oils, stroke by stroke. It is not a machine impression: what comes off the brush is a hand-painted copy made specifically for your order. On this subject two places are the hardest. The first is the snow: it is not white but cream, grey and faintly pink, and if it is painted white the roof beneath it collapses. The second is the branches in the foreground — they have to stay thin and still be present, or the subject never opens into depth. When the work is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. For this family we hold no studio photographs — the work has not been photographed in our workshop yet, and nothing has been removed; when it is next painted it will be photographed and the images added to this page. As a canvas reproduction it arrives stretched on a wooden bar and ready to hang.

Which size suits which wall?

Short answer: 70 x 90 cm or 80 x 100 cm is enough for this subject; the larger steps add grain without adding anything. Above a sofa 110 x 140 cm works. A portrait format behaves differently from a horizontal one — it does not need length beneath it but height above, so it works well beside a door, between windows, or alone on a narrow wall. Our largest format is 160 x 205 cm and the smallest is 50 x 65 cm. A canvas painting at that scale needs distance: the snow and the branches only settle together from a few metres.

How do I order a made-to-measure size, stretcher bar and frame?

If none of the thirteen sizes suits your wall — or if you want to come closer to the size of the original — we paint the work to your own measurement. The canvas comes stretched on a wooden bar; our 3D application is for choosing a frame only, not for showing the work on your own wall. You choose the frame separately and it is not necessarily part of the order.

How is it delivered and what do we guarantee?

We paint to order and deliver to sixteen countries in the European Union, among them Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland; the United Kingdom and Ireland are not currently among them. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval; if you are not satisfied with the result we correct it or paint it again. Because each painting is made individually, the production time varies with the size and with the studio’s current workload.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original kept?

In the Belvedere in Vienna, inventory number 5493; the museum record notes it is currently not on display.

How large is the original?

24 x 17.8 cm — smaller than a sheet of A4 and far smaller than our smallest size.

Can I have it at the size of the original?

Not among the thirteen steps; the smallest is 50 x 65 cm. For something close to the original, order a made-to-measure size.

What is the original painted on?

On cardboard. The museum record gives oil on cardboard, not on canvas.

Why is the year given as 1907/1908?

Because the work carries no date; the museum dates it to a span of two years.

Is this a print?

No. Every canvas is painted by hand in oils by an artist.

How is the work signed?

Lower left, just “E. Schiele”, with no year.

What is that red upright element?

A red element with white bands, between the two buildings. The museum record does not explain it, so we only describe it.

How does it arrive?

Stretched on a wooden bar and protectively packed; the frame is optional.

Is the original for sale?

It is not for sale; it belongs to the public Belvedere collection and is not on the market.

Does it work as a gift?

It does; if you are unsure which size to choose there is a gift voucher.

• Subject: snow-covered roofs with a group of chimneys, green shutters, bare branches in the foreground.
• Original: 1907/1908, oil on cardboard, 24 x 17.8 cm, signed lower left, Belvedere Vienna, inv. no. 5493.
• Ours: hand-painted in oils on linen, 13 sizes or a made-to-measure size.
• Worth knowing: the original is smaller than a sheet of A4, so even our smallest size is a considerable enlargement.