Two Kneeling Figures (Parallelogram) 1913

Egon Schiele made this drawing, Two Kneeling Figures (Parallelogram), sometime around 1913, and it’s now in a private collection. It’s all about the line, how it moves and trembles, capturing the raw energy of the moment. Looking at it, you can almost feel the scratch of the charcoal, the urgency of his hand trying to pin down the fleeting shapes of these figures. The lines aren’t precious, they’re kind of awkward. The front figure, you can see where the line of the shoulder runs from the neck and then is doubled further down the arm. And that doubling gives the drawing this feeling like it’s about motion, or a failed attempt to find a true likeness, maybe? Schiele, he’s all about that tension, pushing against the edge of what a body can express. It makes me think of Alice Neel who also drew in a deliberately uncomfortable manner. Ultimately, these are just marks on paper, but they open up a space for us to feel something real.