Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek, in Profile Facing Left 1907

Egon Schiele made this portrait of Leopold Czihaczek with oil paint, probably around 1907. You can see the process in those bold, directional brushstrokes, building up the form with a kind of raw energy. It's all about how he's putting the paint down. The texture and color are doing so much work here. Look at how the thick paint creates the surface of the coat, almost sculptural, and contrasts with the thinner washes in the background. The way he suggests the figure with those confident strokes, especially that slash of white that defines the hand tucked inside the coat, it's like he's carving out the form with color. That mark is so loaded. It’s economical, yet it speaks volumes, and pulls the whole composition together. Schiele’s got that expressive approach down, like his contemporary Kokoschka. Both of them really let the paint do its thing, embracing the messiness of the medium to convey something deeper about the human condition. Art isn’t about answers, it’s about the questions we ask, and the ways we keep the conversation going.