Reclining Woman with Red Blouse 1908

Egon Schiele made this drawing of a reclining woman, wearing a red blouse, at a time when he was developing his distinctive style. The process seems very direct and intuitive, the hand moving freely across the page. Looking closely, the blouse is such a key element here. It’s rendered with thin, linear strokes of red, punctuated by these almost electric blue dots. There is also a sense of geometry, but the lines wobble, and are uneven, just like in life! It feels very immediate, like Schiele is capturing a fleeting moment, and the dots add this element of dynamism and visual buzz. You can imagine him using a fine brush or pen, quickly laying down these marks. Schiele's work always reminds me of that of Gustav Klimt; the process of trying to capture something of the body with line and decoration. The ambiguity is part of the joy, leaving space for us to bring our own interpretations.