Two Girls 1911

In this work called ‘Two Girls’, Egon Schiele used gouache and pencil in 1911 to create a work whose process feels very immediate. The colours are quite muted, mostly earth tones, except for that big splash of red, which really pulls your eye in. It's almost like a stain, soaking into the paper. There’s a rawness to the surface, and the white border makes it feel like a torn piece of paper. Look at how the red of the dress bleeds into the ochre of the background, it’s this physical quality of the materials that brings the emotional intensity to the surface. The faces are drawn with such delicate lines; the girl’s gaze on the left is just so arresting. Schiele’s work always has this kind of unsettling quality, a mix of vulnerability and tension. He reminds me a bit of Paula Modersohn-Becker, in the way they both use the figure to explore inner states. But, with Schiele, there's always this added layer of psychological drama. Ultimately, it’s the kind of work that leaves you with more questions than answers.