Egon Schiele
Portrait of a Girl (Hilde Ziegler) (Mädchenporträt (Hilde Ziegler)), 1918
Lithographic crayon and brush on paper
46 × 39.5 cm (18⅛ × 15½ in.)
Auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2016
(Kallir d2229a)

Executed in the final year of Egon Schiele’s life, Portrait of a Girl (Hilde Ziegler) belongs to a poignant group of late portraits that reflect both technical refinement and emotional restraint. Created just months before his death in the Spanish flu pandemic at age 28, the drawing captures a quiet intensity that contrasts with the more angular, psychologically raw works of his earlier years.

Drawn in the final months of his life, this portrait of Hilde Ziegler carries a quiet gravity. The sitter—young, composed, and slightly turned—emerges from the paper with a softness rare in Schiele’s earlier work. Her gaze is steady but inward, as if caught in thought or memory. The lines, though confident, are less confrontational than in his provocative nudes; here, they seem to protect rather than expose.

Schiele’s use of lithographic crayon and brush is spare but expressive. A few strokes suggest the blouse’s folds, the curve of the neck, the weight of the hair pinned up. There is no background, no distraction—just the girl, held in time. Signed and dated 1918, the drawing belongs to a group of late portraits marked by restraint and emotional clarity. They reflect a shift in Schiele’s vision: less about defiance, more about presence.

Hilde Ziegler’s identity remains partly veiled, like many of Schiele’s informal sitters. She may have been a neighbor, a student, or simply someone who sat quietly for him in those final weeks. What remains is this moment—intimate, unadorned, and deeply human.

By 1918, Schiele had achieved significant recognition in Vienna and beyond. He had exhibited with the Secession, received state commissions, and was poised to assume a leading role in Austrian modernism. His sudden death in October of that year—just three days after the death of his pregnant wife, Edith—cut short a career that had already reshaped the language of portraiture and figuration in the early 20th century.