Egon Schiele:
Portrait of a Lady with Necklace and Medallion (Bildnis einer Dame mit Halsband und Medaillon), 1907
charcoal and pencil with white heightening on paper
47.9 × 32.4 cm
Auctioned at Karl & Faber in 2024 (estimate EUR 50,000–70,000)
(Kallir d98)

Drawn on 8 March 1907, during Schiele’s first academic year, this portrait belongs to the brief but decisive moment when the sixteen‑year‑old artist was still working within the discipline of the Academy while already beginning to look past it. In these early months he devoted himself almost entirely to portrait drawing, producing a sequence of sheets whose precise dating allows us to follow his development almost day by day. This work stands near the beginning of that trajectory: firmly rooted in academic convention, yet already marked by the heightened attentiveness that would soon propel him beyond it.

The sitter appears in a composed, frontal pose, her features rendered with a delicacy that reveals Schiele’s remarkable technical assurance at this age. The modelling of the face is unusually careful, almost porcelain in its softness, with the shading laid down in fine, even transitions that speak to the discipline of his training. The hair, drawn in short, rhythmic strokes, has a controlled, almost sculptural texture — a far cry from the wiry agitation that would later animate his Expressionist portraits. The choker and oval medallion form a quiet vertical anchor, giving the composition a sense of poise and lending the sitter a gentle dignity. Across the face and collar, the white heightening is applied sparingly and with academic caution, revealing a student who knows the rules of his craft but is already testing how far he can stretch them.

The faintly toned background, softly worked but never intrusive, lifts the head forward with a subtle atmospheric glow. This gentle haloing effect is rare in his early portraits and gives the sheet an unexpected warmth, almost reminiscent of Klimt’s restraint in similar years. The sitter’s expression, calm yet slightly withdrawn, carries a note of introspection that feels observed rather than idealised. Even here, within the strictures of academic practice, Schiele is already attentive to the psychological undercurrent of a face, sensing the inner life that would later become the driving force of his art.

The inscription “Schiele 8 III 07–” anchors the drawing firmly in the chronology of his first semester and underscores the seriousness with which he approached these exercises. Within two years he would leave the Academy, frustrated by its limitations, and begin the radical transformation that led to the Neukunstgruppe and the unmistakable Expressionist idiom that made his name. Yet this early portrait shows how essential his academic foundation was: the precision of the line, the disciplined observation, the ability to hold a figure in stillness while searching for its emotional truth. In this sheet, the young artist is already visible — not yet breaking the rules, but quietly gathering the skills and sensitivities that would soon allow him to do so with extraordinary force.