Portrait of Herbert Rainer 1910

This is Portrait of Herbert Rainer by Egon Schiele. It's a drawing, probably done with graphite or charcoal on paper. I'm immediately drawn to how the sketch is not about perfect representation, but more like a record of seeing. Schiele's line has a hesitant quality. It's not a smooth, confident outline, but broken and searching. Look at the hands. They are more like suggestions of hands. The lines are actively creating the form. Each mark feels like an attempt to capture a fleeting impression. I guess it's about the process of trying to grasp something real. This reminds me of Cezanne, who was also interested in vision as an active process of inquiry. Both artists invite us to see the world not as a fixed reality, but as something constantly shifting. It's not about getting it right, but about the beauty of the search.