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Artist or Maker: 1890-1918
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Medium: gouache, watercolour and black crayon on paper
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Dimensions: 45 by 21.8cm.
17 3/4 by 8 5/8in.
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Provenance: PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE AUSTRIAN COLLECTION
Prof. Dr Heinrich Glück, Vienna (acquired in the 1920s)
Thence by descent to the present owner
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Exhibited: Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, 100 Meisterwerke aus Privatbesitz, 1975, no. 76
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Literature: Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, London, 1998, p. 395, no. 408, illustrated
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Notes: In 1910, Schiele devoted himself almost entirely to portraiture, spending much of his time creating drawings and watercolours of local children from his Viennese neighbourhood. These models allowed the artist to develop his skill for conveying the personalities of his subjects. As Jane Kallir has noted, Schiele's "children are, at heart, just ordinary kids. They smile a little foolishly and look awkward when posing? they sometimes show embarrassment or nervousness. Some occupy quiet, inaccessible worlds; others are outgoing and playful. Never did Schiele force his subjects to do anything that was not natural to them, and the beauty of these drawings lies in the total lack of affectation with which they depict their subjects" (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1990, p. 75). Schiele was twenty years old at the time he executed Mädchen mit grüner Schürze. The inward pose and coy gaze of his sitter reveal much about her adolescent shyness, and reflect Schiele's exploration of sexual awakening in turn-of-the-century Vienna, a subject to which he would return throughout his career.
Schiele's acute attention to detail and skill for rendering sensitive portraits using striking colours is manifested throughout the present work. The vibrant emerald green of his sitter's pinafore contrasts with her red hair, and her figure is highlighted with white gouache, resulting in a luminosity which dominates the entire composition. Schiele has created a balance between all the elements in this portrait, incorporating both bright and subtle hues, yet maintaining texture throughout her green dress and in details such as her stockings and skirt. In Mädchen mit grüner Schürze, the artist has abandoned the decorative elements of earlier paintings in favour of a more expressionistic style, setting the tone for his distinctive portraiture that he was to develop in the coming decades.
