Porträt Otto Wagner 1910

Egon Schiele made this portrait of Otto Wagner with watercolor, and I just love how immediate it feels. It's like Schiele was trying to capture something fleeting, the essence of a person rather than a perfect likeness. Look at how the colors bleed and blend, especially in the face. There's this real sense of fluidity, like Schiele is letting the water do some of the work. The blue-ish shadows on the jacket, they're almost like he's painting the air around Wagner, not just the coat itself. And then there's that hand, kind of unfinished, but so full of character. It is, like, caught in mid-gesture. Schiele’s got this nervous energy, this way of making marks that feel so raw and honest. You see this a lot in other portraits by Schiele, the same intensity, the same kind of restless line, maybe you’ve seen some. It reminds me a little bit of Francis Bacon's portraits, that same sense of unease and psychological depth. But with Schiele, there's also this vulnerability, like he's not afraid to show you his own uncertainty.