“Autumn Sun I”
“Autumn Sun I” is an oil on canvas painting by the Austrian Expressionist artist, Egon Schiele, from 1912. In 1911, Schiele started a series of works that anthropomorphized trees, essentially creating tree portraits. Between 1911 and 1912, this was the main focus of his work. This painting is one of those pieces.
In this painting, Schiele paints two trees during the autumn season. One is much larger than the other They each stand on a hillock and have thin trunks and branches. The leaves have already started to fall and litter the ground below, though some sparse orange leaves remain on the trees. If you look carefully, you’ll notice that the trees are too weak to stand alone and are being propped up. “One experiences an autumnal tree in summer most profoundly,” Schiele explained. “This melancholy I want to paint.” Between the two trees, a sun shines brightly, its rays radiating outward.
Though mostly remembered for his often-risqué portraits, over one third of Schiele’s oil pieces were landscapes. Schiele found that nature walks provided solace from his personal life, seeing a connection between nature and human emotion. The outdoors provided a respite from his tumultuous home life and what he deemed as “lifeless schooling”.
“Autumn Sun I” is currently in a private collection.
For more on Egon Schiele, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
