A woman lies on an artfully draped white sheet. Parts of the body are covered by fabric, but not the most offensive. Breast and gender of the woman, which is Egon Schiele's long-term model Wally Neuzil, are clearly visible. The provocative of the 1917 resulting image is reinforced by the pose of the recumbent. Both arms are raised, on the right she supports her head, the left arm opens into the hand, which seems to have frozen in a gripping motion.

Even more provocative is the composition of the lower parts of the body. While the woman's feet lie against each other, the knees are spread. In this way, the sex becomes all the more obvious, which is covered only insufficiently by the sheet. But Schiele is not satisfied with just shocking the viewer with the content. His style of painting serves him as well. With red splashes of color he directs the view of the sensitive parts of the body, especially sex and nipples. With the typical lines and contouring of the painting motifs, he also emphasizes the naked body.

It is a significant picture in the oeuvre of the Austrian exceptional artist, who died in 1918 at the age of just 28. Like no other painter of the early 20th century, Schiele was modern and at the same time committed to tradition. With his avant-garde aesthetic and style of painting he stood out from the expressionist era. The traditional in the productive work of the artist results from the choice of the motif. Schiele was obsessed with the female act, which he expressed in all possible variations.

However, the many naked women in Schiele's paintings are free of eroticism. First and foremost, one can not and should not attest to the artist's voyeurism or even pornography. Schiele's nudity clings to something morbid. The artist moved with his motif between Eros and Thanatos, erotic and death, life and transience. His naked ones are border crossers between the worlds, they live on the one hand in the here and now, at the same time they are already characterized in this world by the symptoms of death. Schiele's pictures were an expression of a trauma caused by the First World War.

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Reclining Woman by Egon Schiele. Available as an art print on canvas, photo paper, watercolor board, uncoated paper or Japanese paper.
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