Woman in Profile, Seated in a Chair 1909

Egon Schiele made this drawing of a woman in pencil and chalk. I love how the bare paper peeks through, as if the woman is emerging from a dream or a memory. It's like Schiele is thinking out loud, letting us see his process. Look at the dark strokes of chalk around her upper body, it’s like she is shrouded in darkness. Her dress is barely there at all, sketched very lightly. Is it there or isn’t it? And that blue shading in her hair, it draws your eye to the face and suggests a depth of feeling. Schiele reminds me a bit of Gustav Klimt, another Viennese artist, but while Klimt is decorative and gilded, Schiele is raw and searching. He leaves us with questions, not answers, which is often what art is for me anyway.