Egon Schiele
Bohemian Servant Girl (1906) (Böhmisches Dienstmädchen)
Black chalk, charcoal on paper
39.6 × 30.6 cm
© Leopold Museum, Vienna
(Kallir d11)

This early drawing by Egon Schiele (1890–1918) shows Resi, a servant girl from Bohemia who stayed with the Schiele family after they left Tulln. Schiele made the drawing when he was just sixteen. Resi’s continued presence in the household gave him a familiar subject, and her quiet dignity is captured with a tenderness not often seen in his later work.

He made another drawing of Resi as part of his entrance exam for the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where he was accepted at an unusually young age. These early studies already show his sharp eye for character and his refusal to idealize. The use of black chalk and charcoal gives the figure a raw, honest quality, focusing on shape and mood rather than detail.

Unlike the twisted, expressive figures of his mature period, this drawing is softer and more restrained—still grounded in observation. Within a few years, Schiele would become one of the leading voices of Austrian Expressionism, known for his intense, often unsettling portraits.

Catalogued as D11 in Jane Kallir’s authoritative catalogue raisonné, Bohemian Servant Girl is now part of the Leopold Museum’s core holdings of Schiele’s early work. It stands as a quiet milestone in his development—a moment where close observation begins to shift toward personal expression.