Egon Schiele:
Seated Male Nude, Right hand Outstretched, 1910 (Sitzender männlicher Akt mit vorgestreckter rechter Hand)
Watercolor, black crayon and charcoal on paper
43.8 by 30.5 cm (17 1/4 by 12 in.)
Auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2015
(Kallir d669)

In early 1910, Egon Schiele began using his friends—Max Oppenheimer, Erwin van Osen, and Karl Zakovsek—as models. The male nude drawings he produced during this time shared many thematic elements with his self-portraits from the same period. Schiele’s artistic style underwent a rapid transformation in 1910. Through countless figure studies, he honed his line work and employed delicate watercolor washes to animate his subjects.

Art historian Jane Kallir observes that while some of Schiele’s 1909 drawings hinted at an Expressionist breakthrough, his development in 1910 was so swift and intense that the work from this year eclipsed all his earlier efforts. The bold, distorted nudes he created at the start of 1910 had no clear precedent.

During this period, Schiele produced many of his most striking gouaches, including the one referenced here. He worked on crisp brown paper with a slightly polished surface that resisted absorption, causing the paint to dry on top rather than soak in. The vivid acid greens, bright reds, and brilliant oranges—outlined with his signature bold black lines—became hallmarks of his 1910 style.