Four Trees 1917

Egon Schiele made this painting with oil on canvas; he called it 'Four Trees'. Just look at the brushwork here, it's incredible! You can see how the paint is thickly applied, almost sculpted, which gives the whole scene this tactile quality. I can almost feel the rough bark of those trees. The colour choices - these fiery oranges and deep blues - create this really intense, almost feverish atmosphere. I wonder what was going through Schiele’s head when he made it? Was he trying to capture the fading light of dusk, or was he after something else? There's one tree in particular, the one almost stripped bare. It’s this vulnerable silhouette in the landscape. The colour palette and the composition remind me of Munch and maybe, even, Van Gogh. Artists are in a constant conversation across time and place. They look, borrow and adapt to create something new. To me, this piece shows how painting can convey so much about our emotions and our connection to the world around us. It’s not just a landscape – it’s a state of mind.