Description
Egon Schiele – Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith Schiele (Seated), 1918
The hand-painted Egon Schiele painting Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith Schiele (Seated) is an oil reproduction of a work from 1918. The original is held by the Belvedere in Vienna.
The seated figure
Edith sits turned squarely to the viewer, her hands clasped in her lap. The pose is calm and collected, without the tension familiar from Schiele’s earlier portraits — this is the work of a mature painter in his final year.
Blue blouse and white collar
The upper half is carried by the strong blue of the blouse, broken by a wide white collar and a black ribbon tied at the breast. The blue is laid on in broad, soft planes, without the sharp contour line that made Schiele famous.
A skirt like a triangle
The lower half is filled by a large pale skirt, spread into a broad triangle and worked over with small coloured patterns. Two brown shoes look out from beneath it. It is this skirt that gives the painting its weight and sets it firmly on the ground.
The green ground
The background is not flat: it is painted in dark green, blue and brown mottling that moves around the figure like foliage. In this year Schiele increasingly treated his backgrounds as painted surface rather than empty field.
Technique and format of the original
The original is painted in oil on canvas, measuring 139.8 × 109.8 cm (inv. 1991), and hangs today in the Belvedere in Vienna. It was made in 1918, the last year of the painter’s life.
Our hand-painted oil reproduction
Our painter works the reproduction by hand in oil on canvas, in the size you choose. Before delivery you receive a photograph of the painting for approval.
