Egon Schiele – Self-Portrait with Lowered Head

Self-Portrait with Lowered Head is a work of 1912 by Egon Schiele: the head bowed forward and turned aside, and a gaze that nonetheless comes up and out at the viewer. The original is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna under inventory number 462 and, per the museum record, is on display on level OG3; it measures 42.2 x 33.7 cm — 33.7 cm wide and 42.2 cm tall. 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.

Self-Portrait with Lowered Head – Egon Schiele

What does the work show?

The painter from the chest up. The head is bowed steeply forward and tilted to one side, the chin nearly at the collarbone; the hair is thick, black-brown and dishevelled, put down in coarse dragged strokes. The face is dark — olive, grey-brown and ochre, with red traces beside the nose and mouth and a small black moustache. One ear is a bright brick red and is the strongest colour on the panel. Below, the chest and one shoulder are bare and outlined in red-brown lines, and a hand with spread fingers lies across them. A white smock falls open from both shoulders, and its white passes almost imperceptibly into the white of the ground — at the left there is hardly a border between garment and background at all. The ground is a creamy white laid on in broad, visible strokes.

Why do the eyes stand out so much?

Because they look the opposite way from the head. The museum description puts it directly: the lowered head and the outward-directed gaze are contrary movements, and this makes the white crescents of the eyeballs flash out beneath black brows — the record speaks of a diabolic intensity and of the vortex-like effect it produces. That is the reading of the house that holds the work, and we give it as theirs; the description itself calls the work grotesque and sinister in appearance.

What has this to do with the Hermits?

Per the museum record, this self-portrait was made in connection with the large painting Hermits: the posture of the head and the distinctive gesture of the wide-spread fingers are reflected in the left-hand figure of that work. That makes both details on this small panel more important than they look — the hand with five separated fingers is not decoration but the same gesture the painter puts to work in the larger composition.

How many self-portraits did Schiele paint?

Per the museum record, about two hundred over his life, most of them between 1910 and 1914. The record adds something about how he worked at them: photographs taken by the artist Anton Josef Trčka (1893–1940) confirm that Schiele used not only mirrors but a camera as well, as he tried out the full range of gestures and facial expressions.

Is the format upright or horizontal?

Upright. The record gives 42.2 x 33.7 cm, height before width, so the work is 33.7 cm wide and 42.2 cm tall. That is almost exactly the size of Small Tree in Late Autumn of the year before, which measures 42 x 33.5 cm and is likewise painted on a wooden panel. For this subject the portrait format presses head and shoulders up against the top edge, so that the bowed neck fills the middle. Our steps are all upright, from 50 x 65 cm to 160 x 205 cm.

Can I have it at the size of the original?

At the size of the original, no; in its proportion, very closely. The original is small: 33.7 cm wide and 42.2 cm tall, under our smallest step of 50 x 65 cm, so every step we make is larger than it. The original’s ratio of sides is 1 : 1.252, and our 60 x 75 cm, 80 x 100 cm and 120 x 150 cm steps are 1 : 1.25 — at a width of 60 cm that is a difference of about one millimetre in height. The support differs as well: the original is painted, per the record, in oils on wood, while ours is painted in oils on linen. We do not present those as the same thing: a panel and a stretched cloth behave differently.

Where does the work come from and where is it now?

This page carried no provenance note before — for this work there was none, which we say openly rather than quietly supplying a substitute. What follows is the chain as the museum publishes it, and it is short: Margarethe Scheider, in Vienna and Salonica, from 1917 until at least 1960; then Rudolf Leopold, Vienna, from before 1964 to 1994; and from 1994 the Leopold Museum Private Foundation. Two things in that record are worth attention. First, the years between 1960 and 1964 are not accounted for — the museum writes “at least” at the first owner and “before” at the next, and those are careful markers rather than dates. Second, the work stayed with the same owner for more than forty years, and that is probably what shows in the list of catalogues. The museum names only three for this work, all of them late; the two oldest, which appear at neighbouring works from the same collection — Nirenstein’s of 1930 and Kallir’s of 1966 — are not among them. The sources also include a letter from the museum’s archive dated 16 March 2018 and a dossier by Sonja Niederacher of 16 January 2012. The work is today in the Leopold Museum under inventory number 462; the museum’s whole Schiele holding is on the Leopold Museum’s Egon Schiele page.

Where does this work sit among Schiele’s works?

Among the self-portraits, which he painted in series. The year before came Self-Seers II and The Lyricist, both large square canvases from the same collection; from the same year as this panel is Mother and Child, also an oil on wood. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, with 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. As an expressionist painting this is one of his best-known self-portraits; the large works in that collection are oil on canvas, and this panel is not.

How is our hand-painted version made?

Every canvas is painted by an artist in oils, stroke by stroke — not a machine impression but a hand-painted copy made for your order. Two places are the hardest here. The first is the whites of the eyes: two small pale crescents under dark brows, and the whole effect of the work depends on them; enlarge them or soften them and the gaze stops running counter to the set of the head. The second is the border between the white smock and the white ground, which is deliberately almost invisible — draw it in and the figure peels away from the background and acquires an outline the original does not have. 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 — it 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 here. As a canvas reproduction it arrives stretched on a wooden bar, ready to hang.

Which size suits which wall?

Short answer: this is a face, so the size decides how close it comes. For a narrow wall or between windows, 50 x 65 cm and 60 x 75 cm work; for a living room 80 x 100 cm or 100 x 130 cm; for a large room there are 140 x 180 cm and 160 x 205 cm. Our smallest size is 50 x 65 cm. A canvas painting at that scale needs distance: the strokes in the hair and the face read one by one from close up, and the gaze only assembles 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 wall. The frame is chosen separately and need not be 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, and if you are not satisfied we correct the work or paint it again. Production time varies with the size and the studio’s workload.

Frequently asked questions

Where is the original kept?

In the Leopold Museum in Vienna, inventory number 462; per the record, on display at OG3.

Who is shown?

The painter himself, with his head lowered and his gaze directed up and out.

What is the original painted on?

On wood, not canvas; our reproduction is painted in oils on linen.

How large is the original?

33.7 cm wide and 42.2 cm tall — about the size of a sheet of A3 paper.

Is it available in the original’s size?

No; the original is smaller than our smallest step of 50 x 65 cm.

Which of your sizes is closest to its proportion?

60 x 75 cm, 80 x 100 cm and 120 x 150 cm; a ratio of 1 : 1.25 against the original’s 1 : 1.252.

How is the work marked?

Lower right, with a signature and the year “EGON SCHIELE 1912”.

Is this a print?

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

How many self-portraits did he paint?

Per the museum record, about two hundred, most of them between 1910 and 1914.

How does it arrive?

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

Does it work as a gift?

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

• Subject: a self-portrait with the head lowered, the gaze turned up and out, and a hand with spread fingers across the chest.
• Original: 1912, oil on wood, 42.2 x 33.7 cm, signed lower right, Leopold Museum, Vienna, inv. 462.
• Ours: hand-painted in oils on linen, 13 sizes or a made-to-measure size.
• Worth knowing: this page carried no provenance note for this work; the chain is given as the museum publishes it.