Description
Egon Schiele – Standing Girl, Back View, 1908
This hand-painted Egon Schiele painting, Standing Girl, Back View, is our copy in gouache and watercolour on paper of a gouache from 1908. The original is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
What the sheet shows
The sheet shows a girl standing, seen from behind, in a blue cap and a blue dress that flares towards the hem. Her back and shoulders are left in a warm ochre, a white underskirt shows below the dress, and her legs are covered by reddish-purple striped stockings. The background is bare paper; the work is signed at the lower left.
The original’s medium and format
The original is gouache and watercolour on paper — the museum records it as “Gouache and watercolor over graphite on paper” — measuring 23.2 × 31.4 cm (width × height) (inv. 1984.433.296).
Where it is
The work is today in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which received it through the Scofield Thayer bequest (inv. 1984.433.296).
Our hand-painted copy
Our copy is hand-painted in gouache and watercolour on paper, the same medium as the original, and painted in the size you choose. We send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.
Frequently asked questions
What does Schiele’s Standing Girl, Back View show?
A girl standing with her back to the viewer, in a blue cap and a blue dress that widens towards the hem. Her back and shoulders are left in warm ochre, a white underskirt shows beneath the dress and her legs are in reddish-purple striped stockings. There is no setting: the figure stands on bare paper, and the sheet is signed at the lower left.
When did Schiele make Standing Girl, Back View?
In 1908, when he was 18 and a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, which he had entered in 1906. In the same year he showed his work publicly for the first time, in a group exhibition in Klosterneuburg, just north of Vienna.
Was Schiele influenced by Klimt at the time of Standing Girl, Back View?
Yes, strongly in these years. Schiele sought out Gustav Klimt in 1907, and the older artist bought drawings from him or exchanged them for his own, arranged models for him and introduced him to collectors. Schiele’s works from 1907 to 1909 stay close to Klimt and to Viennese Art Nouveau, before he found his own tense, angular line.
What technique did Schiele use for Standing Girl, Back View?
Gouache and watercolour over graphite on paper, as the Metropolitan Museum records it: a pencil underdrawing first, then transparent watercolour and opaque gouache. The upright sheet measures 23.2 × 31.4 cm, and the museum keeps it among its drawings.
Where is Standing Girl, Back View today?
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, under inventory number 1984.433.296. It came to the museum in 1982 with the bequest of the American collector Scofield Thayer.
Who was Scofield Thayer?
Scofield Thayer (1889–1982) was an American editor who ran the literary magazine The Dial in the 1920s. From 1921 to 1923 he lived in Vienna and bought works by Klimt and by Schiele, who was then almost unknown in America. He left his collection to the Metropolitan Museum, which received it after his death in 1982.
