Sale: 540 / Evening Sale, June 09. 2023 in Munich Lot 27

 

27
Egon Schiele
Studie eines sitzenden Mannes (Max Oppenheimer), 1910.
Watercolor, India ink and charcoal
Estimate:
€ 200,000 / $ 216,000
Sold:
€ 444,500 / $ 480,060

(incl. surcharge)
Studie eines sitzenden Mannes (Max Oppenheimer). 1910.
Watercolor, India ink and charcoal.
Kallir 589. Lower left monogrammed "S", lower right monogrammed "S" and dated. With the estate stamp on the reverse. On brownish paper. 36.5 x 31.5 cm (14.3 x 12.4 in), the full sheet. [JS].

• One of a total of three pictorially executed watercolors of his artist friend Max Oppenheimer wearing a black tailcoat, which Schiele made in 1910.
• Through the contact with Oppenheimer, Schiele's work made the pivotal turn from Art Nouveau to Expressionism.
• In the works from this series, Schiele attained an expressive strength that is unmatched in his portraits of gentlemen, and is only surpassed by his famous self-portraits.
• Of radical modernity: owing to the close-up image section, the eccentric pose, the reduced colors and the unusual perspective.
• Renowned provenance: Rudolf Leopold Collection, Vienna, and Serge Sabarsky Collection, New York.
• Today one of the other two watercolors from the Oppenheimer series is in the Graphic Collection of the Albertina, Vienna
.

PROVENANCE: From the artist's estate (with the stamp on the reverse).
Gertrude Peschka-Schiele, Vienna (the artist's sister, inscribed on the reverse).
Prof. Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Vienna (up to 1985).
Serge Sabarsky Collection (1912-1996), New York (acquired from the above in 1985).
Serge Sabarsky Estate, New York (since 1996).
Vally Sabarsky Collection (1902-2002), New York.
Vally Sabarsky Foundation, New York (since 2002).

EXHIBITION: German Expressionists, Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, spring 1986, no. 22 (titled "Seated Male Torso in Black Suit (Max Oppenheim)", on display as "not for sale).
Egon Schiele (1890-1918) Drawings and Watercolors, Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, summer 1986, no. 4 (on display as "not for sale).
German Expressionists, Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York, winter 1986, no. 22 (on display as "not for sale).
Gustav Klimt. 125 drawings, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn, New York, June 2 - October 15, 1989 (on display but not mentioned in the catalog).
Egon Schiele, Mezinárodní kulturní centrum Egona Schieleho, Ceský Krumlov, November 6, 1993 - May 1, 1996, pp. 116-117.
Egon Schiele, National Gallery of Iceland, Reykjavik, May 31 - July 14, 1996.
Egon Schiele: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections, Neue Galerie, New York, October 2005 - February 2006, no. D41 (with illu.).
Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Neue Galerie, New York, June 28 - September 3, 2018.

LITERATURE: Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele. The complete Works. Including a Biography and a Catalogue Raisonné, New York 1990, cat. no. D 589, pp. 414-415 (with black-and-white illu.).

"In his short life [..] Egon Schiele created an oeuvre that was both symptomatic of its time, as well as groundbreaking, making him one of the most formative and dazzling figures of Viennese Modernism."

Quoted from: Leopold Museum, www.leopoldmuseum.org/de/sammlung/egon-schiele.

In 1909, Egon Schiele actively sought contact with the painter Max Oppenheimer, who was five years his senior. Along with Oskar Kokoschka, he was one of the leading representatives of Viennese Expressionism and Schiele would fing the decisive turning point from Art Nouveau to Expressionism through his work. Jane Kallir's catalogue raisonné lists a series of only three watercolors as important artistic testimonies to this friendship, a friendship that lasted for many years and was formative for both sides. Created while working together in Schiele's studio in the winter of 1910/11, Schiele attained an expressive power in these works that show Max Oppenheimer in black tails that is unique of his gentlemen portraits. Despite the amount of material, which is unusual for Schiele, the black tailcoat only leaves the expressively shaped and colorfully accentuated hands uncovered, and in the other two watercolors also the face of the sitter, Schiele achieved an expressionist power through the unusual image section and the exaggerated poses that only compares to his self-portraits. Reduced to a minimum, our watercolor shows only the lower half of his artist friend's body, severely cropped on all sides, and lets his right hand reach into the format from above as if it was cut off. A bold trick that confidently sets the deep black of the body in a tailcoat almost like an abstract line structure in the format. This is where Schiele's exceptional graphic mastery becomes apparent, his flair for format, the relationship between painted and unpainted areas, and the contrast between colored and blank paper. Is it red paint or blood that Schiele drips from his artist friend's hand onto the deep black of the tailcoat? Probably an allusion to the agonizing existence of the artist, who can be recognized by his stigmata, corresponding to the self-sacrificing suffering of Christ. This imagery is disturbing and almost programmatic for the exceptional expressionist Egon Schiele, who put everything into his art, with almost every one of his drawings painfully permeated by a maximum of expression. With an art committed to the theme of life and death, the young artist died of the Spanish flu at the young age of 28. [JS]



27
Egon Schiele
Studie eines sitzenden Mannes (Max Oppenheimer), 1910.
Watercolor, India ink and charcoal
Estimate:
€ 200,000 / $ 216,000
Sold:
€ 444,500 / $ 480,060

(incl. surcharge)