Egon Schiele:
Girl with Red Hair (Mädchen mit rotem Haar), 1909
Colored pencils and pencil on buff paper
29.9 × 31.8 cm
Auctioned at Christie’s, New York, in 2010 for USD 206,500
(Kallir d284)

Drawn in 1909, this quietly intimate sheet belongs to a moment when Schiele was beginning to move with greater confidence into his own artistic territory. The use of colored pencil — still relatively rare in his early work — is restrained and deliberate, allowing the red hair to glow softly against the warm buff paper. The contour remains gentle, but already there is a growing decisiveness in the line.

The figure is seated, turned slightly to the side, with the head inclined and the eyes visible — not passive, but quietly present. Her gaze, though understated, holds a subtle emotional charge, as if caught between thought and stillness. There is tenderness in the handling of the hair and face, yet the drawing avoids sentimentality. It feels observational, personal, and emotionally attuned — a moment of closeness rather than display.

Works from this year often show Schiele testing new materials, new models, and new emotional registers. Mädchen mit rotem Haar captures that exploratory spirit: the warmth of the paper, the delicacy of the colored pencil, and the emerging clarity of line all converge in a portrait that feels both introspective and searching. The drawing seems to hold its breath — a quiet study of presence, rendered with care and restraint.

It is a quietly revealing moment in the evolution of his draftsmanship — a young artist refining his touch and beginning to articulate a voice unmistakably his own. The sheet carries the warmth of early trust, the hush of a private sitting, and the first stirrings of the expressive intensity that would soon reshape his art.