Description
Landscape with Ravens is a 1911 painting by Egon Schiele: a steep hill in countless browns fills almost the whole canvas, with a small crooked hut near its top, a broken fence along the ridge and a flock of black birds in the narrow white sky. The original, 89 x 95.8 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.
| Title: | Landscape with Ravens |
| Other titles: | Rabenlandschaft |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1911, signed and dated lower right “EGON SCHIELE 1911.” |
| Original size (width × height): | 89 cm x 95.8 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. 527) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, 8 sizes from 60 x 65 cm to 150 x 160 cm, or a made-to-measure size |
Landscape with Ravens – Egon Schiele
What does the painting show?
Almost the whole canvas is earth. A hill built up in browns, olive, ochre and near-black rises to a peak at the top centre, where it touches the upper edge, and a dark, broken fence runs along its ridge down to both sides. Above it, in the white sky left over at the top, a flock of small black birds is on the move. Near the top of the hill stands a small dark hut with blue edges to its roof, a red-orange window and a white door, half caught in a lattice of thin white lines. Lower down, the ground darkens to deep brown and green, crossed by thin posts, some with short white crossbars, and a single red stroke on the left. At the bottom a small bare tree with orange dots rises in front of a pale ochre block. In a small green patch at the lower right the Austrian painter signed EGON SCHIELE 1911.
Why do people love it?
Because it is so dense and earthy. There is almost no sky, and the eye has to find its way through a wall of warm browns to the hut, the posts and the little tree, which appear only when you look closely. The black birds against the white give the top a sharp, restless edge. It is a landscape of autumn and passing time rather than a pretty view, and that seriousness is what draws people in: the longer you look, the heavier and warmer it becomes.
Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?
Among the landscapes of his first months in Neulengbach, where he moved in 1911. The bare autumn tree has a close relative in Small Tree in Late Autumn, and the same feeling for a lonely motif against a wide ground runs through Four Trees and 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. Like the original, our copy is oil on canvas. The hardest part here is the brown: dozens of close, warm tones have to stay distinct, so that the hill has depth instead of turning into one muddy mass, and the thick strokes have to keep their direction. The thin white lines, the fence and the birds go on last, as sharp and light as in the original. 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 89 x 95.8 cm; our 80 x 85 cm is a little smaller and 110 x 120 cm a little larger. The smaller sizes, 60 x 65 cm and 70 x 75 cm, suit a hallway, a study or a bedroom wall; above a sofa or a sideboard in a living room, 110 x 120 cm or 120 x 130 cm give the hill and the birds real force; on a large wall or in a tall room, 140 x 150 cm or 150 x 160 cm. A canvas painting this dark and warm likes a light wall and good light, so that the browns do not sink into shadow. 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 eight 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. 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 Stretcher, 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
Where did Schiele paint it?
In Neulengbach in Lower Austria, where he moved in August 1911 into a small house with a garden. The Leopold Museum dates the painting to that year and counts the Neulengbach months among his most productive periods.
What do the ravens and the hut mean?
The museum reads the painting as life and death, culture and nature bound inseparably together: the crooked hut and the bare autumn tree are painted in almost the same browns as the earth. In a letter to Oskar Reichel of September 1911, Schiele described the earth as something that breathes and feels, a cycle in which everything decays and sprouts anew. The museum’s keywords for the work include death, transience and the raven.
Who owned it before the Leopold Museum?
The museum’s provenance names, in order, Heinrich Benesch until 1947, Otto Benesch from 1947, Eva Benesch from 1964 and Jenö Eisenberger in 1983. Rudolf Leopold acquired it in 1983, and in 1994 it passed to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.
Where is the original?
In the Leopold Museum in Vienna, under inventory number 527. It is painted in oils on a canvas of 89 x 95.8 cm and signed and dated at the lower right EGON SCHIELE 1911.
Does it work as a gift?
Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, there is a gift voucher.
