“Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant”
Here is a self-portrait from a young Egon Schiele.
“Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant”, sometimes called “Self-Portrait with Lampion Fruit”, is an oil on wood painting made in 1912 by the Austrian Expressionist artist, Egon Schiele. It is one of his most famous portraits, made when he was just 22 years old.
In this piece, Schiele paints himself with his head slightly turned to his left, looking confidently at the viewer. The pupil of his right eye is red matching the plant to his right. The portrait crops the top of his hair and the lower part of his body in a more modern framing style. He is painted slightly right of center, with the Chinese lantern plant shown vertically on the portrait to his right. The bright red of the seed pods contrasts with the black shirt he is wearing and adds a saturated spot of color against the light background. The brush strokes are strong and abrupt, with rough and earthy splashes of color.
Schiele made this as a companion piece to “Portrait of Wally Neuzil”, also from the same year. The two were in a relationship at the time, and the portraits complement each other in both composition and color. Egon Schiele started working with Walburga (Wally) Neuzil in 1911; a woman who had previously modeled for Gustav Klimt. She was his muse, and they soon became lovers, living a bohemian lifestyle. Schiele’s work was expressive, raw, and sexual, and she is featured in many of his paintings from this period.
Unfortunately, Schiele only lived to 28 years old, truncated by the Spanish influenza that took his life in 1918.
“Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Plant” is currently in the collections of the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria.
For more on Egon Schiele, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
