Description
Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer is a 1918 work by Egon Schiele in which a man in a pale suit sits on a yellow wooden bench with his hands resting together in his lap. The original is in the Belvedere in Vienna under inventory number 3158 and, per the museum record, hangs in the Upper Belvedere. 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.
| Title: | Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer |
| Other titles: | Victor Ritter von Bauer · Bildnis Victor Ritter von Bauer |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1918; signed and dated bottom centre “EGON / SCHIELE / 1918” |
| Original size: | 140.6 cm x 109.8 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Belvedere, Vienna (inv. no. 3158), Upper Belvedere |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on linen, 13 sizes from 50 x 65 cm to 160 x 205 cm, or a made-to-measure size |
Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer – Egon Schiele
What does the work show?
A man in a pale, almost white suit with a waistcoat, seated on a yellow-ochre wooden bench with visible slats and two armrests. The knees are apart and the hands rest one on the other in his lap; the fingers are long and bony, the knuckles drawn out. The crown of the head is nearly bare, the face is lean, the ears stand out, and the gaze goes off to one side rather than towards the viewer. Below the collar is a pale yellow-green tie. Behind him is a wall of horizontal yellow-ochre boards, and directly behind the head a dark brown patch that reads as a shadow or a halo. On the bench between his knees lies a small object with dark blue, green and red stripes — the only saturated colour in the work.
Who was Victor Ritter von Bauer?
The museum record does not say. For this work it gives the name as the title and nothing else: no dates, no profession, no relation to the painter. For some other Schiele portraits the same house adds a short note on the sitter; here there is none. So you will not find a biography of him on this page — not because he would not be interesting, but because we have no source for one. What can be known for certain about this man from here comes from the painting: how he sat, what he wore, and how the painter placed him.
Where is the signature?
Bottom centre. The museum record gives it as signed and dated bottom centre, “EGON / SCHIELE / 1918”. That is an unusual place and no rule with Schiele — for other works of the same years the record gives the signature lower left, lower right, or none at all on the front. Here it stands exactly on the axis of the painting, below the foot of the bench, like a stamp at the bottom of a sheet.
Is the original on display?
Per the museum record, yes. The location field names the Upper Belvedere rather than the note that the work is currently not on display. That is worth saying, because for several other Schiele works in the same collection — among them the Portrait of Dr Hugo Koller and the Portrait of Dr Franz Martin Haberditzl — the same record says they are not currently on display. So if you are planning a visit, this is one of the works the record says can be seen; it is still worth checking with the museum, since hangs change.
What is the canvas like and what is the format?
A portrait format: the record gives 140.6 x 109.8 cm, a canvas about a quarter taller than it is wide. The record gives the original as painted in oils on canvas; our reproduction is painted in oils on linen, which is our choice of support and not a statement about the original. We do not let the two blur together: the table above gives canvas for the original’s technique and linen for ours.
Where does the painting come from?
The Belvedere publishes the chain of owners, and this page already carries it: the provenance note follows directly below and is kept word for word, unaltered. It repays careful reading, because it says not only who held the work but where the published chain STOPS: at 1930. How the painting reached the museum after that year the published record does not say, and we do not guess. The museum names a contact for provenance research. The exhibition list is long: 1954, 1968, 1990, “Franz Martin Haberditzl. Portrait eines Direktors” in 2003, “Die Tafelrunde” in 2006, “Nach Schiele” in 2006–2007, the large Schiele exhibition of 2011, another in 2018–2019, and “Klimt ist nicht das Ende” in 2018–2019. The museum’s whole Schiele holding is listed on the Belvedere’s Egon Schiele page.
Provenance
The painting was owned by Karl Grünwald in Vienna and was acquired in 1930 by Wolko Gartenberg in Vienna. The Belvedere’s published record of ownership ends there; the work is today in the Belvedere in Vienna.
Where does this portrait sit among Schiele’s works?
Among the late portraits of 1918, the year the painter died, beside the Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, Edith Schiele, painted in the same year and held by the same house. As an expressionist painting this one too is markedly calm: the tension comes not from the pose but from the relation between the pale, almost colourless suit and the hot yellow ground around it. How different the painter had been eleven years earlier is shown by Interior of 1907. 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.
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 suit: almost white, but built from greys, greens and pinks, and if it is painted an even white the figure loses its weight. The second is the hands, which have to stay long and bony rather than becoming clumsy. 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: above a sofa choose 110 x 140 cm or larger; for a smaller wall 70 x 90 cm is enough. On this subject 110 x 140 cm has a particular claim, because of all our sizes it comes closest to the size of the original, which measures 140.6 x 109.8 cm. An upright subject 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. Above a bed 120 x 150 cm is the usual choice. 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 face, the hands and the yellow ground 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, 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 3158; per the museum record, in the Upper Belvedere.
Who is in the work?
Victor Ritter von Bauer. The museum record gives nothing about him beyond the name.
How is the work signed?
Bottom centre, in the form “EGON / SCHIELE / 1918”.
Is this a print?
No. Every canvas is painted by hand in oils by an artist.
How large is the original canvas?
140.6 x 109.8 cm, so upright.
Which of your sizes is closest to the original?
110 x 140 cm; of the thirteen it is the one that comes nearest the original’s measurements.
What is that striped object on the bench?
A small object with dark blue, green and red stripes. The museum record does not name it, so we only describe it.
Can I have a size that is not on the list?
Yes, we paint the work to any measurement you specify.
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: a man in a pale suit on a yellow wooden bench, hands in his lap, a wall of horizontal boards behind.
- Original: 1918, oil on canvas, 140.6 x 109.8 cm, signed bottom centre, Belvedere Vienna, inv. no. 3158.
- Ours: hand-painted in oils on linen, 13 sizes or a made-to-measure size.
- Worth knowing: per the record the work hangs in the Upper Belvedere, and the published chain of owners ends at 1930.
