Description
Small Tree in Late Autumn is a work of 1911 by Egon Schiele: a single bare sapling with a pale, sharply bent trunk on a bank of dark earth, against an almost white ground. The original is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna under inventory number 459 and, per the museum record, is on display on level OG3; it measures 42 x 33.5 cm — 33.5 cm wide and 42 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.
| Title: | Small Tree in Late Autumn |
| Other titles: | Kleiner Baum im Spätherbst · Majhno drevo v pozni jeseni |
| Painter: | Egon Schiele (1890–1918) |
| Year: | 1911; signed and dated lower right “EGON SCHIELE 1911” |
| Original size: | 42 cm x 33.5 cm (height before width) |
| Original technique: | Oil on wood |
| Style: | Expressionism |
| Location: | Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. 459), on display at OG3 |
| 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 |
Small Tree in Late Autumn – Egon Schiele
What does the work show?
A single bare sapling. The trunk is light, almost white, and climbs from the lower middle in sharp elbows — first left, then right and up — as though it had been broken and set again. A dark blue-black seam runs along part of it and along one branch. The branches spread below the top and to the right, thin, brown and rust-red, with a few small dark marks; several are cut off by the edge of the panel. The lower fifth is a bank of earth — dark brown, ochre and black, laid on in short dense strokes and very thick paint. Everything else is a pale grey-white ground with broad visible strokes and faint lighter patches.
Why does the museum say this is not a real landscape?
Because on its reading the tree is not a scene but a condition. The museum description says plainly that Small Tree in Late Autumn — like Autumn Tree in Stirred Air — is not a genuine landscape; rather the tree in its bareness and isolation embodies the feeling of being exposed and lonely, and at the same time the will to survive. That is the reading of the house that holds the work, and we give it as theirs.
What did the painter himself say about trees?
The museum quotes his letter to the collector Franz Hauer (1867–1914) from the summer of 1913: “Now I am mainly observing the bodily movements of mountains, water, trees and flowers. Everything recalls similar movements in the human body, similar stirrings of joy and suffering in the plants.” The letter is two years later than this work, and the museum offers it as a key to Schiele’s landscapes in general rather than as a comment on this panel — which is how we pass it on.
Why does a small panel feel large?
Because the tree does not fit on it. Branches are cut by the edge at the left, at the right and along the top, so the viewer completes them, and the tree ends up seeming bigger than the board it stands on. The museum description calls this a monumental depiction on a small panel, and adds that the subject is not a “dancing” tree swaying in the wind but the growth and persistence of nature — and so of humanity — in the face of adversity.
Is the format upright or horizontal?
Upright, which for an outdoor subject is worth saying out loud. The record gives 42 x 33.5 cm, height before width, so the work is 33.5 cm wide and 42 cm tall. For a tree that makes sense: the portrait format leaves room for a trunk climbing the whole height and pushes the branches out to the edges. 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 nearly. The original is small — 33.5 cm wide and 42 cm tall, which is under our smallest step of 50 x 65 cm, so every step we make is larger. The original’s ratio is 1 : 1.254, 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 two millimetres in height. The support differs too: the original is painted, per the record, with oils on wood, ours is painted in oils on linen. We do not present those as the same: a panel and a stretched cloth behave differently.
Where does the work come from and where is it now?
The provenance note this page already carried follows directly below, kept word for word and unaltered. The museum’s chain confirms it and adds sources, and one detail worth reading slowly. The first owner was Arthur Roessler, the Vienna critic and an early champion of Schiele. Later the work was with Otto Nirenstein in Vienna — until 1938 — and from 1939 with the Galerie St. Etienne in New York. Those are the same man and his new gallery: after emigrating, Nirenstein signed himself Otto Kallir, and the museum lists the 1930 catalogue in which this work appears as number 95 under exactly that double name, “O. Kallir (Nirenstein)”. The years 1938 and 1939 in the chain are therefore not a coincidence. Among the other sources is a dossier by Sonja Niederacher of 30 June 2010. The work is today in the Leopold Museum under inventory number 459; the museum’s whole Schiele holding is on the Leopold Museum’s Egon Schiele page.
Provenance
The painting was owned by Arthur Roessler in Vienna, then by Richard Lanyi and by Otto Nirenstein in Vienna (before 1930 to 1938); from 1939 to 1954 it was with the Galerie St. Etienne in New York, and then with Rudolf Leopold (1954–1994); it is now at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.
Where does this work sit among Schiele’s works?
Among the landscapes of 1911, the same year as Self-Seers II and The Lyricist, both large square canvases from the same collection. How he painted walls instead of trees is shown by House Wall on the River; Mother and Child is painted on a wooden panel too. 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 landscapes; 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 earth: it is laid on very thickly in short strokes that have to stay readable as separate strokes, or the lower fifth of the work turns into a brown field. The second is the trunk, which is actually lighter than the sky behind it — unusual for a tree, and it tempts a painter to darken it; the moment the trunk is darker than the ground, the work loses what makes it strange. When it 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: the subject is quiet and pale, so it carries a large wall without becoming heavy. 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 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 earth read one by one from close up, and the tree 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 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 459; per the record, on display at OG3.
What is shown?
A single bare tree on a bank of earth, against a pale ground.
What is the original painted on?
On wood, not canvas; our reproduction is painted in oils on linen.
How large is the original?
33.5 cm wide and 42 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 : 1.254.
How is the work marked?
Lower right, with a signature and the year “EGON SCHIELE 1911”.
Is this a print?
No. Every canvas is painted by hand in oils by an artist.
When was the work made?
In 1911, the same year as Self-Seers II and The Lyricist.
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 bare sapling with a pale, sharply bent trunk on a bank of dark earth.
- Original: 1911, oil on wood, 42 x 33.5 cm, signed lower right, Leopold Museum, Vienna, inv. 459.
- Ours: hand-painted in oils on linen, 13 sizes or a made-to-measure size.
- Worth knowing: the museum reads this not as a real landscape but as an image of exposure and persistence.
