Girl

In a stark white space, a young girl lies curled on the ground. Her head is bowed, her body contorted.

There is no background—nothing at all. Only the girl’s figure is captured, raw and vivid, in bold black lines.

At first glance, it might look like a private sketch born of the artist’s personal fascination. In reality, however, it was something else entirely.

Though originally commissioned by a patron, the finished work was flatly rejected upon completion. The reason: the raw, sexual adolescence of the young girl had been emphasized far too starkly.

The year was 1918, in Vienna—a year of catastrophe as the Austro-Hungarian Empire spiraled toward defeat and collapse.

Yet for Schiele himself, he was reaching a dramatic peak. Following his resounding success at the Vienna Secession exhibition in March, he stood at the zenith of the avant-garde, the undisputed successor to his late mentor, Gustav Klimt.

He invited young models into his Hietzing studio, executing drawing after drawing to forge this singular image. Though spurned by his client, a different path opened up through the art critic and patron Arthur Roessler.

Roessler urged Schiele to embrace printmaking, arguing that prints could be sold in volume within the thriving German market, bringing the painter much-needed financial stability.

Schiele took on the challenge of transfer lithography. Rather than drawing directly on the lithographic stone, he rendered his lines on special transfer paper, using the press to convey his characteristically sharp, twisting strokes onto the stone with unadulterated fidelity.