Egon Schiele – Stein on the Danube II

Stein on the Danube II is a 1913 painting by Egon Schiele: the old town of Stein seen from the hill behind it, its towers, steep brown roofs and white walls set against the broad, pale surface of the Danube. The square original, 91.5 x 91.5 cm, is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna. We paint it by hand in oils on canvas at the size you choose, and before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval.

Stein on the Danube II – Egon Schiele

What does the painting show?

The whole upper half is water: a broad ochre-grey surface crossed by long, pale blue horizontal strokes, closed at the very top by a thin dark green strip of the far bank. In front of it the town rises in layers. On the left stands a tall, pale tower with narrow windows and a dark rounded cap; in the middle a smaller tower with a reddish-brown bulb and a slim spire; behind the roofs on the right runs a light, lattice-like structure of thin lines. Below come steep dark brown roofs, white walls with small square windows, pointed Gothic openings and a row of oval windows, and at the bottom a dark green slope. The signature and date sit at the lower right. According to the Leopold Museum, the Austrian painter looked down on Stein from the Kreuzberg hill behind the town and set its silhouette against the single-coloured river for the strongest possible contrast.

Why do people love it?

Because it is calm and clear. The palette is held to browns, whites, ochres and a few greens, and the roofs, walls and windows lock together almost like a pattern, so the eye can wander from building to building without getting lost. The pale river works like a wall of light behind the town, and the square format gives the whole composition a quiet balance. It is a townscape you can live with for years, and it looks just as good from across a room as from close up.

Where does it sit among Schiele’s works?

Among the townscapes that run through his work, from the small towns on a river to single house walls. The same attention to roofs, windows and house fronts returns in Krumau on the Vltava (The Small Town IV), in Houses on the River (The Old Town) and in House Wall on the River. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery, and there is more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele.

How is our hand-painted version made?

Each copy is a hand-painted painting made for your order, not a print: a painter builds it up in oils, stroke by stroke. Like the original, our copy is oil on canvas. Two things matter most here. The river has to stay one calm, pale surface with its faint blue strokes, not turn into sky or into a flat grey, and the many small windows and roof edges must be drawn cleanly, because the charm of the town lies in them. When the work is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. We have not yet photographed this work in our workshop; photographs will be added to this page once we have them.

Which size for which wall?

The original is a square of 91.5 cm, and our 90 x 90 cm is the closest to it. The smaller sizes, 50 x 50 cm to 65 x 65 cm, suit a hallway, a desk or a chest of drawers; 70 x 70 cm to 100 x 100 cm sit well above a sofa or a sideboard in a living room. On a large wall, in a stairwell or in a tall room, 120 x 120 cm and up to 170 x 170 cm let the town fill the wall the way it fills the canvas. A canvas painting with this much detail is worth choosing large rather than small, so that the windows and roofs stay readable. Hang it with the centre at eye level, about 145–150 cm from the floor.

Custom size, stretcher bar and frame

If none of the fourteen sizes suits your wall, we paint the work to your own measurement. If you choose YES under the Podokvir (stretcher bar) option, the canvas comes stretched on a wooden stretcher bar, ready to hang. Our 3D application is for choosing a frame only. The frame is chosen separately and need not be part of the order.

Delivery and guarantee

We paint to order and deliver to sixteen countries in the European Union, among them Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Germany and France; the United Kingdom and Ireland are not currently among them. The work arrives protectively packed and, if you chose YES under Podokvir, stretched on a stretcher bar. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished work to approve. Production time depends on the size and on the studio’s workload. Every order is covered by our Returns and Refund Policy.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Stein, and where did Schiele stand?

Stein is a medieval town on the Danube that today is part of Krems in Lower Austria. For this painting, according to the Leopold Museum, Schiele looked down on it from the Kreuzberg, the hill rising behind the town, so that the river forms a flat backdrop.

Is it a faithful view of the town?

No. The museum notes that Schiele, although he knew the place well, selected and rearranged its characteristic buildings at will. The square block of the Minorite monastery in the foreground, for example, stands in reality not next to the Frauenberg church but some 300 metres further east.

Why is there a II in the title?

In 1913 Schiele painted a series of views of Stein, and the numeral sets this one apart from the others. Another work of the series, Stein on the Danube, Seen from the South (Large), is in the Neue Galerie in New York.

Where is the original?

In the Leopold Museum in Vienna, under inventory number 479. It is a square oil painting on canvas of 91.5 x 91.5 cm, signed and dated at the lower right.

Who owned it before the Leopold Museum?

The museum names Franz Hauer until 1914 and his estate until 1918, then Heinrich Mayer from 1918 to 1938 and Josef and Richard Parzer from 1938 to 1956. Rudolf Leopold owned it from 1956, and in 1994 it passed to the Leopold Museum Private Foundation.

Does it work as a gift?

Yes; if you are unsure which size to choose, there is a gift voucher.