Self portrait in a jerkin with right elbow raised 1914

Egon Schiele made this self-portrait in a jerkin with his right elbow raised with paint on paper, though when is anyone’s guess. His colours, a kind of sickly pink and fleshy tan, are laid down quickly, with real urgency. It's like he’s trying to capture something before it disappears, which as a painter, I can relate to. What's so striking is the contrast between the raw, almost brutal handling of the paint and the vulnerability of the figure. You can see the strokes, the way he’s scratched at the surface to get the effect he’s after. It’s like he’s flaying himself, showing us everything, inside and out. That raised elbow, it’s a kind of defiant gesture, like he’s daring us to look away. It reminds me of Francis Bacon's distorted figures, that same sense of anguish and existential dread. Both artists are interested in pushing the boundaries of representation, of showing us the raw, unfiltered truth of human experience.