Austrian Expressionism: Felix Harta
Portrait of Egon Schiele (Porträt von Egon Schiele), c. 1916 Watercolor on paper
46 × 29.5 cm
©Leopold Museum, Vienna

Felix A. Harta, born in Budapest in 1884, first met Egon Schiele in Vienna in 1909. Following this initial meeting, during the pre-war years of 1910–1914, Harta traveled extensively through Europe and worked closely within Vienna’s emerging modernist circles. Alongside younger painters like Anton Faistauer and Franz Wiegele, he became an active part of the avant-garde movement that was radically rethinking color, surface, and the traditional role of portraiture.

The contact with Schiele remained intermittent due to Harta’s travels and the outbreak of the First World War, becoming more regular from mid‑1916. Edith and Egon Schiele visited the Harta family in their Vienna apartment and studio at Hietzinger Hauptstraße 10, located close to Schiele’s own address at Hietzinger Hauptstraße 101, where he lived and worked in Vienna.

Harta moved in circles that also included Gustav Klimt, whose final studio in the Feldmühlgasse lay within the same district; Harta is documented as having drawn Klimt’s attention to this location when the older artist was looking for a quieter workspace.

A Mutual Artistic Bond
During one of the visits to the Harta household Schiele likely produced a portrait of Eva, the couple’s daughter. Harta also sat for Schiele himself, appearing in a small group of works from this period. In 1916 the two artists portrayed each other. Franz Pfemfert, publisher of Die Aktion, asked Harta for a drawn portrait of Schiele for a planned booklet; that drawing, a linear work, appeared in the 2 September 1916 issue. The present watercolor is a separate work, probably made during the sitting on 17 June, and shows Schiele in a sports jacket with a downward gaze. The face is organised in distinct areas of green, red and yellow, giving the sheet a clear, segmented color structure.

Style and Artistic Legacy
Felix Harta’s watercolor presents Egon Schiele in a direct, frontal half‑length pose. The contours of the face are set with controlled lines, the hair pushed back in a compact form. The washes are thin, leaving the paper visible and giving the sheet an even, dry surface. The background remains neutral, allowing the figure to stand without additional emphasis. The portrait dates to around 1916, when Harta and Schiele were active within Vienna’s modernist circles.

After Schiele’s death in 1918, Harta continued to work steadily in Vienna, exhibiting in local and regional venues and maintaining a career as a painter and graphic artist through the interwar period.
Building upon his earlier experience with the avant-garde, Harta co-founded the influential modern artists’ association Der Wassermann in Salzburg in 1919 together with Anton Faistauer. As the two co-founders of the group, they established a crucial platform for modern art in the region, with Harta serving as its first president. He remained active until the 1960s, with a body of work that reflects consistent engagement with portraiture and everyday subjects. The watercolor records Schiele’s appearance with an observational approach, relying on contour, limited color and a restrained handling of the medium. The image remains factual and without psychological interpretation; it shows only what is visible.

For much more on Felix Harta, have a look here:
https://www.faharta.com/