Houses on the Moldau, Krumau 1910

Egon Schiele made this painting of houses, likely with oils and maybe some charcoal. Look at the way those lines just scratch and claw at the surface! The buildings almost seem to hunch together like they’re trying to stay warm. What do you think Schiele was thinking when he made this? Was he cold? Was he lonely? There’s a kind of nervous energy, like he couldn't quite settle on what he was seeing. Maybe he was trying to capture not just the look of the buildings, but the feeling of the place. There's this really interesting tension, you know, between the dark browns and purples of the houses and that almost violent purple water. It feels like the buildings are pressing down on the water, and the water is pushing back. It's a push-pull that a lot of painters explore, each in their own way. It's all one big conversation, really.