Seated Male Nude

Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait) (1910)

by Egon Schiele

Leopold Museum

As a lone survivor, this work of art is one of the last remaining pieces from a series of five large figure studies Schiele did in 1910. In the piece Seated Male Nude (Self Portrait) shown above, Egon Schiele depicts himself as a bare and unprotected figure alone on a white picture plane. The reasoning behind this choice of composition could correlate with the artist’s separation from former mentor artist Gustav Klimt, another renowned painter from Austria. At this time, Schiele had completely stripped himself of his past techniques of painted he examined and learned from Klimt, and has produced his own mark. A mark focusing mostly on line and geometrical forms, but a mark that could express vulnerability, curiosity, confusion, sexual tension, and has just an overall uncomfortable aura. In his portrayal of the Seated Male Nude, Schiele incorporates all those qualities within one piece, that fact that it was a self-portrait is interesting in itself. The sitting figure can be seen as vulnerable with the decision of having the legs lay comfortably open, and the figures arms in a relaxing state. That same limb placement can create sexual tension between the viewers and this depiction of Schiele. Along with compositional factors, the delicate attention to the breast and areolas create a sense of unbalanced gender identity and leave the viewers curious, and perhaps uneasy. The figure also seems trapped within the piece itself which could be commenting on Schiele’s personal thoughts of life, or art during the time. 

Photo & Information Credit

“Egon Schiele, Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait)” Masterpieces of the Collection The Leopold Collection Leopold Museum <http://www.leopoldmuseum.org/en/leopoldcollection/masterpieces/35> (April 23, 2016)

Schroder, Klaus A & Sceemann, Harald. Egon Scheile and His Contemporaries – Austrian Painting and Drawing from 1900 to 1930 from the Leopld Collection, Vienna. New York: Neues Publishing Company.,1989.

Short, Chris. Scheile. New York: Phaidon Press Limited., 1997.