Self Portrait with Hand to Cheek 1910

Egon Schiele’s self-portrait, painted in 1910 with oil on board, is all nervous energy and raw vulnerability. I imagine Schiele, in the act of painting this, constantly shifting, adding lines, wiping them away, and starting over, each stroke a question. There’s such an urgency in the application of the paint, those reds and purples clash and vibrate, creating a sense of unease. His eyes are a focal point, one staring directly out while the other drifts off, lost in thought, a gesture of a hand pressed to the cheek is so telling—is it contemplation, exhaustion, or maybe a little of both? I can’t help but think of other artists who wrestled with the self-portrait, like Van Gogh, each brushstroke a reflection of their inner turmoil. Schiele seemed to wear his soul on his sleeve, exposing the raw nerves beneath the surface. In the end, painting is a conversation across time, artists responding to one another, picking up the thread, and weaving their own story into the mix.