Portrait of Paris von Gütersloh 1918

Egon Schiele made this portrait of Paris von Gütersloh using pencil on paper, and what grabs me is the raw, almost nervous energy in those lines. It feels like Schiele wasn't just drawing a face, but trying to capture something deeper, a fleeting expression, maybe even a hidden emotion. The texture here is all in the scratchy, almost frantic lines that build up to form the face. Look at the eyes, how they seem to stare right through you, or the way the hair is a mess of tangled lines, full of movement. It's like Schiele is using the pencil to carve out the essence of his subject, rather than just creating a likeness. You get a sense of the artist really grappling with his materials. Schiele reminds me a bit of Alice Neel, in that both artists are fearless when it comes to portraying the raw and unvarnished reality of their subjects. It's not about beauty, it's about truth, even if that truth is a little uncomfortable. And for me, that's what makes this piece so compelling.