Standing Male Nude 1910

Egon Schiele made this watercolor, probably pretty quickly, to capture an attitude or a feeling. Look at the ochre wash of the paper, thin and stained, like the color of old skin, against the bright scar of viridian green. What was he thinking when he put the green there? It's so abrupt and unnatural. The colors in this painting feel restless, raw, and vulnerable, which seems right for the artist, who I imagine was something of a tortured soul. Those hands like claws obscuring the head! What does it feel like to be that person? Schiele's marks are so economical but highly charged. In his brief life, he was so prolific, obsessed with the body, like so many others before him. What's interesting is how his kind of vulnerability has continued to speak across time, influencing other artists to push the possibilities of line and form.