Description
Mother with Two Children II is a large 1915 painting by Egon Schiele: a seated mother with two children, wrapped in a green textile against a plain brown-yellow ground. The original is held by the Leopold Museum in Vienna under inventory number LM 457 and measures 160 x 149.5 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: | Mother with Two Children II |
| Other titles: | the museum’s German title is Mutter mit zwei Kindern II |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1915 |
| Original size (width × height): | 160 cm x 149.5 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. LM 457) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, 6 sizes from 65 x 60 cm to 165 x 155 cm, or a made-to-measure size |
Mother with Two Children II – Egon Schiele
What does the painting show?
The mother sits in the middle of the canvas and takes up almost its full height. Apart from the bare face and the feet, her body is entirely wrapped in a green textile which, in the museum’s reading, balances the plain brown-yellow ground in colour while at the same time drawing the figure into it with an unsettling bodilessness. The head is pale, the eye sockets are perfect circles, the mouth is only a black line; the museum record speaks of the impression of a skull. One child sleeps in her lap, while a second stands upright at her left and seems strangely to float; its brightly striped garment is the only lively patch of colour in the picture. In the museum’s reading Schiele takes up the classical compositional scheme of a Pietà, broken open precisely by that standing child.
Why do people love it?
Because it is one of those large Schiele figure paintings that a room cannot ignore. The broad green shape against the warm brown-yellow ground reads almost like a modern graphic, so the work sits happily in a calm, light room and with present-day furniture. The format is close to square, which is rare, and it fills a wide wall above a sofa or a low sideboard well. And the subject is human: a mother and two children, with no sweetness about it, so the painting still has something to give after years on the wall.
Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?
Among Schiele’s mother-and-child pictures. The museum record places the work in a line of unsettling mother-and-child paintings that break with the image of a relationship held together by tender, protective care, and dates it a year after his Blind Mother. In 1915 Schiele was 25; he died three years later. 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 green textile: it is one large shape, yet the colour inside it keeps shifting, and painted too evenly the figure collapses into a flat cut-out. The second is the face, which has to stay pale and stylised without turning into a caricature; that judgement decides whether the picture stays serious. The original is oil on canvas, and so is our copy, in the same technique. 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 large, 160 cm wide and 149.5 cm high, and our closest size is 165 x 155 cm. Above a sofa or a large sideboard in the living room, 135 x 125 cm or 150 x 140 cm; on a big clear wall or in a tall room, 165 x 155 cm; above a desk or in a smaller room, 95 x 90 cm or 80 x 75 cm; in a hallway or a narrow niche, 65 x 60 cm. Prices run from 132 EUR for 65 x 60 cm to 864 EUR for 165 x 155 cm. Because the format is close to square it wants a wall about as tall as it is wide, with some clear space at the sides. Hang it with the centre at eye level, about 145-150 cm from the floor.
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
Who is shown in the painting?
A mother with two children, unnamed. The title is general and the museum record names no particular sitters, so the work is not to be read as the portrait of a specific family. It is a subject Schiele returned to in several paintings.
Why does the mother’s face look like a skull?
In the museum’s reading the head is stylised to such a degree – pale, with circular eye sockets and only a black line for a mouth – that the impression of a skull imposes itself. The museum links that impression to an expression of absence, which the child asleep in her lap takes up as well.
Is this a Pietà?
The museum names the classical compositional scheme of a Pietà, that is, a seated figure with a child in the lap. The scheme is broken by the second child, standing upright at the mother’s left. So it is a compositional reference, not a religious picture.
When was it painted?
In 1915. According to the museum record, a year after Schiele’s Blind Mother. Schiele was 25 at the time and died in 1918, so this belongs to the work of his last years.
Where is the original, and do you sell it?
The original is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna under inventory number LM 457; it is oil on canvas and measures 160 x 149.5 cm. We do not sell the original. We paint you a hand-made copy in oils on canvas, at the size you choose.
Does it work as a gift?
Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, there is a gift voucher.
