Landscape in Lower Austria 1907

Egon Schiele made this small landscape in Lower Austria, with oil on canvas. You can really feel Schiele's sensitivity to the colours and textures that make up this Central European scene. It’s got a kind of restless energy, but it's also very balanced. There is an interest in the foreground; I see the juicy green and yellow of the landscape rendered in short, quick strokes. Imagine Schiele out there, maybe in a field, trying to capture the light and the vastness of the hills in the distance. It looks like he moved quickly with the brush, not trying to get too fussy about details, but just trying to get the feeling of the place, the colour and forms of the environment. The paint looks thin, stained, and slightly muddy, but that's what makes it feel so alive. You feel the energy. I like to think that Schiele wasn't just painting what he saw, but also what he felt being in that landscape. It reminds me of other expressionist painters like, like Kirchner, who were also trying to capture the raw emotion of their experiences. These artists are all in conversation with each other, learning and experimenting. It's an ongoing exchange of ideas, inspiring each other's creativity.