Strichmännchen mit Bogen 1918

Egon Schiele made this drawing, Strichmännchen mit Bogen, using simple lines on a tinted ground. It looks like a kid’s drawing, only it’s by Schiele, so we know it’s more than that. I’m thinking about the artist making this, sitting perhaps, quickly sketching with ink or charcoal, trying to capture a figure in motion, or a feeling. I see how the orange underpainting warms up the whole thing. It's like the background is pushing forward. The black lines make the figure feel unstable, as if it might fall apart at any moment, which is so Schiele, right? The tension and the raw emotion, the starkness... It reminds me a bit of some drawings by children. Maybe Schiele was looking at these kinds of drawings himself, looking for a more primal, authentic form of expression. Ultimately, artists are always in conversation with each other, and with art history, trying to find their own voice amidst the noise.