Egon Schiele:
Autumnal Alluvial Forest (Herbstlicher Auwald), 1907
Oil and pencil on cardboard
25 × 17.3 cm
©Leopold Museum, Vienna
(Kallir P86)

In 1907, the seventeen-year-old academy student Egon Schiele painted this small landscape on cardboard. The work dates from a period when he was still studying traditional naturalism and realism, combined with contemporary Jugendstil elements. It shows a quiet forest setting during the autumn season.

This painting was created during Schiele’s first summer break from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. Away from the strict academic rules, he spent his holidays in Lower Austria and his hometown of Tulln, focusing entirely on open-air landscape painting.

Schiele used a palette of dark, earthy tones for the trees, contrasted against a bright, light-colored background that shows through the branches. This technique prevents the small composition from appearing flat or overly dark.

Technically, the painting is an early example of Schiele applying graphite pencil lines directly over oil paint. While art critics of the period considered mixed media on cardboard unconventional, Schiele used the pencil to reinforce the sharp, graphic outlines that eventually defined his mature artistic style.

After Schiele’s death in 1918, the piece passed to his sister, Melanie Schuster. It was later purchased by Dr. Rudolf Leopold and is now part of the permanent collection at the Leopold Museum in Vienna.