Description
Egon Schiele – Squatting Couple (The Family)
Egon Schiele – Squatting Couple (The Family), 1918
This hand-painted Egon Schiele painting, Squatting Couple (The Family) (originally Kauerndes Menschenpaar / Die Familie), is an oil reproduction of one of the artist’s last major works, painted in 1918. The original is held at the Belvedere in Vienna.
The scene
A nude man and woman crouch in darkness, with a child peering out from between the woman’s legs. The man’s alert features are a self-portrait of Schiele. The museum reads the composition as a study in contrast and isolation: the man’s angular body set against the woman’s rounded form, the three figures physically close yet each alone.
The title “The Family”
The title The Family was assigned posthumously by the critic Berta Zuckerkandl. It points to Schiele’s own unfulfilled family life: his wife Edith died of Spanish influenza on 28 October 1918 while six months pregnant, and Schiele died three days later.
The original’s medium and format
The original is oil on canvas, measuring 150 × 160.8 cm (inv. 4277). It is one of Schiele’s last oil paintings and was shown at the 49th exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1918, for which Schiele also designed the poster.
Provenance
From 1918 the painting was owned by Hans Böhler (Vienna and New York); the Belvedere purchased it from him in 1948.
Our hand-painted oil reproduction
Our reproduction is hand-painted in oil on canvas and painted in the size you choose.
