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Exhibited: Vienna, Graphische Sammlung Albertina,
Gustav Klimt-Egon Schiele: Zum Geddchtnis ihres Todes vor 50 Jahren
, April-June 1968, no. 218.
London, Fischer Fine Art,
Egon Schiele: Watercolors, Drawings,
Graphics
, June-July 1975, no. 21.
Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art,
Egon Schiele
, April 27-June 1979, no. 43.
London, Marlborough Fine Art,
Egon Schiele: An Exhibition of Watercolors and Drawings
, June-August 1979, no. 31.
Vienna, Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien; Linz, Neue Galerie der Stadt Linz/Wolfgang-Gurlitt-Museum; Munich, Museum Villa Stuck, and Hannover, Kestner-Gesellschaft,
Egon Schiele: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle aus den Bestdnden des Historischen Museumsder Stadt Wien und aus amerikanischem Privatbesitz ausgewdhlt von Serge Sabarsky
, September 1981-June 1982, no. 65.
Paris, Salle Saint-Jean, Hôtel de Ville; Kaiserslautern, Pfalzgalerie; Bolzano, Museo Civico; Torino, Palazzo Reale,
Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele: Dessins et Aquarelles
, June 1984-February 1985, no. 75.
New York, Serge Sabarsky Gallery,
Egon Schiele (1890-1918). Drawings and Watercolors
, summer 1986, no. 16.
Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts,
Europalia 87 Vsterreich: Egon Schiele
, September-December 1987, no. 79.
Rosenheim, Stadtische Galerie Rosenheim; Florence, Palazzo Strozzi; Herforder Kunstverein im Daniel-Pvppelmann-Haus; Leverkusen, Erholungshaus der Bayer A.G.; Hoechst/Frankfurt, Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst; Bari, Castello Svevo; Genoa, Museo Villa Croce; Ferrara, Padiglione dArte Contemporanea di Palazzo Massari; Roslyn Harbor, Nassau County Museum of Art, and Linz, Obervsterreichisches Landesmuseum,
Egon Schiele: 100 Zeichnungen und Aquarelle
, May 1988-December 1990, no. 59.
Milan, Palazzo della Permanente,
Egon Schiele: Acquarelli e dipinti
, May-June 1991, no. 47.
Stadtische Galerie Bietigheim-Bissingen; Berlin, Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum; Passau, Museum moderner Kunst; Ulm, Ulmer Museum; Prague, Palais Wallenstein, and Paris, Musée-Galerie de la Seita,
Egon Schiele: 100 Zeichnungen und Aquarelle
, July 1991- February 1993, no. 59.
Vienna, BAWAG Fondation; Aix-en-Provence, Musée Granet; Albi, Musée Toulouse-Lautrec; Lisbon, Culturgest; Aschaffenburg, Stadt Aschaffenburg/Galerie Jesuitenkirche, and Schloss Mainau, Blumeninsel Mainau,
Egon Schiele: 100 Zeichnungen und Aquarelle
, March 1993-November 1994, no. 60.
Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda,
Egon Schiele
February-May 1995, no. 87.
Rouen, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen,
Klimt.Schiele.Kokoschka
, May-August 1995, no. 139.
Bad Frankenhausen, Panorama Museum; Klagenfurt, Stadtische Galerie Klagenfurt; Cracow, International Cultural Centre, Ljubljana, Cankarjev Dom, Fine Art Gallery CD,
Egon Schiele: 100 Zeichnungen und Aquarelle
, November 1996-June 1997, no. 60.
New York, The Serge Sabarsky Foundation,
Egon Schiele: Drawings and Watercolors
, June 1996.
New York, Neue Galerie,
Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and S. Sabarsky Collections
, October 2005-February 2006, p. 415, no. D107, (illustrated in color, p. 273).
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*This lot may be exempt from sales tax as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice in the back of the catalogue.
A combination of an exquisitely fine line and expressively-brushed areas of rich color, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse (Seated female semi-nude in Green Blouse) is a powerful work that marks the pinnacle of Schiele's achievements as a draughstman.
In this psychologically haunting work, Schiele depicts a young girl dressed solely in a green blouse, staring provacatively at the viewer with disquieting nonchalance. Seated with her legs set wide apart and her pubic hair partially visible beneath the edge of her blouse, this young girl transfixes the viewer with a questioning stare that, given the state of her undress, immediately endows the work with an irresistible erotic energy. With her form magically rendered using the merest hint of line, this unknown model's pose is seemingly one which Schiele deliberately calculated for this erotic effect. Her fingers are splayed under her chin in mock contemplation, her upraised arm reinforces the central axis of the work extending between her beckoning eyes and the pubic region between her splayed thighs.
For Schiele, eroticism was a "mystic" energy rooted at the heart of existence and, because of its connection with procreation, intrinsically linked to the creative powers of the artist. In this respect, it was also "sacred." "I paint the light that comes out of all bodies--Erotic works of art are sacred." Schiele once wrote to his uncle and guardian in an attempt to explain the conscious philosophical basis behind what was then considered the shocking or deliberatively provocative nature of his work. While Schiele also clearly found that erotic works provided a ready source of income, for him, as for Freud, sexuality was also a key which could be used to explore the inner life of the mind.
Schiele's drawings and watercolors of 1913 reveal the artist's increased interest in the depiction of the inner psychology of his sitters as well as his more usual exploration of the way in which a pose or gesture could be used to suggest mood and emotion. While slightly more guardedly pornographic than many of Schiele's drawings on this theme, Sitzender weiblicher Halbakt in grüner Bluse is a work that nonetheless demonstrates this aspect of his work by coaxing the complicity of the viewer and engaging him in an intense exchange of mutual eye contact and covert solicitation.
