Reclining Nude with Boots 1918

Egon Schiele made this ink drawing of a nude with boots. The lines here feel almost like a dare, as Schiele fearlessly renders the body with a kind of raw honesty, making it so that the viewer is pushed right into the model's space. It's pretty confrontational, but also vulnerable. I find myself drawn to the way Schiele captures the weight and volume of the body, using just a few strokes. You can almost feel the pressure of the flesh against the boots, or the tension in the limbs. The boots are so precisely rendered they are kind of funny. Schiele was such a complex character. His work is often compared to that of Gustav Klimt, who was a mentor to him, although Schiele's style is more raw and expressionistic than Klimt's more decorative approach. Both were interested in representing the human body and psychological states in innovative ways. It's this exploration that has made Schiele such an important figure in the history of modern art.