House with Drying Laundry 1917

Editor: Egon Schiele's "House with Drying Laundry," painted in 1917 using oil paint, presents an intriguing jumble of buildings. There's almost a sense of unease and tension in the skewed perspective, and it feels both intimate and strangely claustrophobic. What catches your eye when you look at it? Curator: The most compelling element, formally speaking, is Schiele's treatment of space. The buildings are stacked vertically, almost collapsing onto each other. Note the lack of traditional perspective; he flattens the pictorial space, pushing the foreground and background together. This denial of depth, compounded by the expressive lines that delineate the architecture, contributes to a feeling of anxiety. Do you observe how the texture works within the composition? Editor: Yes, the rough texture of the paint itself seems to enhance that anxious mood. It is almost as though the architecture is collapsing due to a stylistic or psychological earthquake. I'm not quite sure if I am using that wording correctly. Curator: The application of paint contributes significantly. The impasto technique, where the paint is applied thickly, creates a tactile surface. These palpable strokes emphasize the materiality of the work. Semiotically, these textured markings are far from arbitrary: observe their capacity to transmit expressive intent and convey a particular emotive intensity. Notice, too, how Schiele subverts expectations in his chromatic approach. He limits his palette and primarily uses shades of brown, ochre and dull-whites for this visual interpretation. Editor: The way you describe the use of those color tones makes me think how unsettling it would be to be living inside one of those places and in such confined conditions. What have you learned from the close examination of its compositional qualities and art elements? Curator: Precisely. Through the structural arrangement and art elements in this landscape, the flattening of the scene and impasto and limited color use effectively embody the angst and the tension of an unsettled atmosphere. Editor: Thinking about it now, all that attention to detail makes a big difference when considering a work like this, and impacts how we might feel about it.