{"id":201641,"date":"2026-08-20T19:02:40","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T17:02:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/?post_type=product&p=201641"},"modified":"2026-09-25T14:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T12:53:34","slug":"egon-schiele-self-portrait-with-black-clay-pot","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/svetslik.si\/en\/egon-schiele\/egon-schiele-self-portrait-with-black-clay-pot\/","title":{"rendered":"Egon Schiele \u2013 Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot is a work of 1911 by Egon Schiele: the painter\u2019s head and shoulders in a dark smock, one hand laid flat across the chest with the fingers spread, a dark vessel with a dry branch behind him and a band of bright colour on the pale surface to the right. The original is in the Wien Museum in Vienna under inventory number 104207; it measures 27.5 x 34 cm and is painted in oil on wood. We make it as a hand-painted oil painting on canvas, in fifteen sizes or to your own measurement, and we send you a photograph of the finished work for approval before it ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Title:<\/td>\nSelf-Portrait with Black Clay Pot<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Other titles:<\/td>\nSelbstbildnis (the museum\u2019s title) \u00b7 Avtoportret s \u010drno lon\u010deno posodo<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Painter:<\/td>\nEgon Schiele (1890\u20131918)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Year:<\/td>\n1911<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original size:<\/td>\n27.5 cm x 34 cm (height before width)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Original technique:<\/td>\nOil on wood<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Style:<\/td>\nExpressionism<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Location:<\/td>\nWien Museum, Vienna<\/a> (inv. 104207)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Our reproduction:<\/td>\nhand-painted oil on canvas, 15 sizes from 43 x 35 cm to 205 x 164 cm, or a made-to-measure size<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot \u2013 Egon Schiele<\/h2>\n

What does the work show?<\/h3>\n

The painter down to the chest, set into the left half of the panel. The face is pale, in yellowish and greenish tones with reddish patches; the eyes are wide open and look past us, the mouth is slightly open, the ears stand out. The hair is thick and dark. A dark, almost black smock covers the body, and out of it the right hand rises: the palm lies flat on the chest, the fingers spread into a fan with two of them held further apart than the rest. Behind the head stands a dark round vessel, and from it a dry branch with brown-orange leaves reaches to the right against a grey-green wall. Right of centre, on a pale, almost white surface, lies a band of bright stripes \u2013 green, red, orange, blue and violet \u2013 with dark lines between them. At the lower right, in three lines, is the signature.<\/p>\n

Who is in the work?<\/h3>\n

Schiele himself. Among the motifs the museum record lists portrait, man, hand and Egon Schiele, so it carries the work as a self-portrait, though it titles it simply \u201eSelbstbildnis\u201c \u2014 self-portrait, with nothing added. The name the work is known by here and elsewhere comes from the dark vessel behind the painter\u2019s head; the museum record does not name that vessel.<\/p>\n

What does the museum record say about it?<\/h3>\n

It has no descriptive text, but it has exact data. The work is carried under inventory number 104207, dated 1911, as oil paint on wood, with a painted surface of 27.5 \u00d7 34 cm and a frame of 32.5 \u00d7 39 \u00d7 4.5 cm. The catalogues list it as P 204 in Jane Kallir and no. 85 in Tobias G. Natter (2017). The record also names five books in which the work is published \u2014 among them the monograph Egon Schiele. Leben und Werk of 1968, where it is reproduced on the cover.<\/p>\n

Is the work signed?<\/h3>\n

The signature is visible in the work: at the lower right the name and the year are written in three lines. The museum record has no signature field, so we give this not as its information but as what can be seen in the painting.<\/p>\n

What is the original painted on?<\/h3>\n

On wood. The museum record gives oil paint and wood, that is an oil painting on a wooden panel. Our reproduction is painted in oils on canvas. We do not present those as the same thing: a wooden panel and a stretched canvas are different supports, and we name the difference. Among the works by Schiele we offer, House Wall on the River of 1915 is an oil on canvas; this panel is not.<\/p>\n

Is the format upright or horizontal?<\/h3>\n

Horizontal. The record gives 27.5 x 34 cm, height before width, so the panel is not quite a quarter wider than it is tall. Our steps follow it in a landscape format<\/strong>, from 43 x 35 cm to 205 x 164 cm, with the width given first. The width gives room both to the head and to the band of colour on the right.<\/p>\n

Can I have it at the size of the original?<\/h3>\n

At the size of the original, no: the panel is 34 x 27.5 cm, and our smallest step, 43 x 35 cm, is larger on both sides. In proportion the steps come close. The original\u2019s ratio of sides is 1 : 1.24, and five steps sit within a centimetre of it: 43 x 35 cm, 50 x 40 cm, 80 x 65 cm, 100 x 80 cm and 130 x 105 cm. Eight steps are between one and two centimetres off, and two between two and three. For the original\u2019s size, choose a made-to-measure size.<\/p>\n

Where does the work come from and where is it now?<\/h3>\n

This page carries no provenance note, because the museum record publishes none: there is no chain of owners for this work. We do not substitute a guess for it. What the record gives is where the work is today: the Wien Museum in Vienna, inventory number 104207. The work has been published repeatedly, among others in the exhibition catalogue Traum und Wirklichkeit. Wien 1870\u20131930 of 1985 and in the book Schiele & Roessler. Der K\u00fcnstler und sein F\u00f6rderer of 2004.<\/p>\n

Where does this work sit among Schiele\u2019s works?<\/h3>\n

Among the self-portraits of 1911 and 1912, nearly all of them small panels. From the same year and the same collection is The Artist\u2019s Room in Neulengbach<\/a>; a year later came the Self-Portrait with Physalis<\/a>, where the dried lantern plant appears as the branch does here, and the Self-Portrait with Lowered Head<\/a>. The full selection is in the Egon Schiele gallery<\/a>, with more on his life in our article about Egon Schiele<\/a>; the works by Schiele in this collection are listed by the Wien Museum\u2019s online collection search<\/a>. 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 those years is still read through those two names. As an expressionist painting it does not flatter the face; it exposes it.<\/p>\n

How is our hand-painted version made?<\/h3>\n

Every canvas is painted by an artist in oils, stroke by stroke \u2013 not a machine impression but a hand-painted copy made for your order. Two places are hardest here. The first is the hand: the fingers are spread and each has its own length and outline, so they cannot be evened out \u2013 let them merge and the gesture loses its tension. The second is the face, built from small planes of green, yellow and red; smooth them into an even complexion and the portrait becomes ordinary, and exactly what makes this one particular disappears. When the work is finished we photograph it and send you the photograph for approval, and only then does it ship. We hold no studio photographs of this work yet \u2013 it has not been photographed in our workshop, and nothing has been removed; when it is painted, the images will be added here. As a canvas reproduction it arrives stretched on a wooden bar, ready to hang.<\/p>\n

Which size suits which wall?<\/h3>\n

Short answer: a face that looks past the viewer works better at the middle sizes than at the largest. For a narrow wall or a shelf, 43 x 35 cm and 50 x 40 cm; above a desk or a sideboard 80 x 65 cm or 100 x 80 cm; for a larger wall 130 x 105 cm and up to 205 x 164 cm. Our smallest size is 43 x 35 cm. As a canvas painting with a strong face it takes over a room quickly at the large sizes, so it is worth thinking about the distance you will look at it from.<\/p>\n

How do I order a made-to-measure size, stretcher bar and frame?<\/h3>\n

If none of the fifteen sizes suits your wall, we paint the work to your own measurement<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

How is it delivered and what do we guarantee?<\/h3>\n

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\u2019s workload.<\/p>\n

Frequently asked questions<\/h3>\n

Where is Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot kept?<\/h4>\n

In the Wien Museum in Vienna, under inventory number 104207. The same collection holds The Artist\u2019s Room in Neulengbach, painted in the same year.<\/p>\n

Why is it called Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot?<\/h4>\n

The name comes from the dark vessel behind the painter\u2019s head, with a dry branch rising from it. The Wien Museum itself carries the work simply as \u201eSelbstbildnis\u201c, self-portrait, and does not name the vessel. In English it is also often listed as Self-Portrait with Black Vase and Spread Fingers.<\/p>\n

What is Schiele doing with his hand?<\/h4>\n

He is holding nothing: it is his own right hand, laid flat on the chest, the fingers spread into a fan with two of them held further apart than the rest. Splayed, strained fingers recur in Schiele\u2019s self-portraits and portraits of these years, and writers usually read them as a sign of tension and self-exposure. The museum record itself gives no interpretation.<\/p>\n

When did Schiele paint Self-Portrait with Black Clay Pot?<\/h4>\n

In 1911, the year he turned 21. That year he left Vienna with Wally Neuzil, first for Krumau (\u010cesk\u00fd Krumlov) and then for Neulengbach.<\/p>\n

Is the original painted on canvas?<\/h4>\n

No: it is oil on a wooden panel, and a small one, 27.5 cm tall and 34 cm wide, or 32.5 x 39 x 4.5 cm with its frame. The catalogues list it as P 204 in Jane Kallir and as no. 85 in Tobias G. Natter (2017).<\/p>\n

Does it work as a gift?<\/h4>\n

It does; if you are unsure which size to choose there is a gift voucher<\/a>.<\/p>\n