Houses on the Town Square in Klosterneuberg 1908

Egon Schiele made this little painting, Houses on the Town Square in Klosterneuberg, probably outside, with oil on wood. I love the bold strokes of reds, purples, and greens. I bet Schiele was just standing there, squinting, trying to get it all down fast. You can see the brushstrokes dancing, almost vibrating on the surface, especially in the sky! I can imagine him, quickly, deliberately, dragging the paint across the surface, building up the forms of the buildings and that blobby tree. It kind of reminds me of other landscape painters like Cezanne, who was also trying to capture the essence of a place through color and form. I can see Schiele thinking about those painters, riffing on their ideas. It’s like they’re all having this conversation across time, bouncing ideas off each other, trying to figure out how to make a painting. And that is exciting, isn't it?