House wall 1914

Egon Schiele made this painting, "House Wall," with oil on canvas, and the subject is just that: the exterior of a building. But look closely, and you'll see there is more to it than meets the eye. There's a lot of skilled labor in even a small painting like this. The canvas had to be prepared, stretched, and primed; the paints were likely mixed by hand as well. Schiele’s brushwork also tells a story. Notice how the repeated strokes give a woven effect, almost like a tapestry. The painting has a very tactile quality. The tiles of the roof are all slightly different. This emphasis on the handmade, the individual mark, really makes you think about the role of the artist, and how he saw himself in relation to the world of mass production. The painting really elevates the status of the everyday and the hand-made. It reminds us that even in the most mundane subjects, there's still room for craft, for skill, and for beauty.