Setting Sun 1913

Egon Schiele made this landscape painting, "Setting Sun," with oil on canvas. He didn't employ traditional, blended brushwork here, but rather, used a dry-brush technique, allowing the weave of the canvas to remain visible. Schiele's expressive style focuses on line and colour, achieving a raw, almost jarring effect. The materiality of the painting emphasizes its constructed nature. Look closely at the segmented composition and how it divides the landscape. The way the paint has been applied also creates a tactile surface that invites closer inspection. Schiele was active during a period of immense social change in Europe, including the rise of industrialization and the shift away from agrarian life. The painting can be seen as a reflection of this change, in which landscapes were measured and divided. Schiele’s interest in the way of making a painting reminds us of the labor involved in the production of art, and how materials and processes can imbue a work with deep cultural significance.