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Lot 571
A Continental gilt-metal mounted tortoiseshell snuff box, early 19th century, of circular form painted with polychrome striped design, the cover with central panel painted with a young girl picking pink roses and vignettes of garden tools and flowers within floral borders on a gilt ground, within floral chased gilt-metal outer rim, 8cm diameter Please refer to department for condition report
Lot 512
A set of seven wooden graduated plumber's bobs used for widening lead pipes, stamped Slagbro, a similar set of three bobs, a conical wooden lead pipe stretcher, a double turned end cobbler's tool, steel shoemaker's nippers, various leather stitch marking tools, a half moon cutter and a leather sharpening block. (qty)
Lot 4
EGON SCHIELE (1890-1918)Sitzende Frau signed and dated 'Egon Schiele 1917' (lower right)black pencil on paper46.1 x 29.6cm (18 1/8 x 11 5/8in).Executed in 1917Footnotes:ProvenancePrivate collection, Vienna and London (possibly acquired directly from the artist).Liesl Bunzl Collection, Vienna and London (by descent from the above).Thence by descent to the present owners.LiteratureJ. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, 1998, no. 1999 (illustrated p. 582).'He had always been a demon draftsman [...] and his line, by 1917, had acquired an unprecedented degree of precision [...] Schiele's drawing technique – the armature upon which all his painted forms rested – had acquired an almost classical purity [...] Schiele's hand had never been surer, more capable of grasping, in a single breath-taking sweep, the complete contour of a figure. This extreme dexterity invited mannerism; when his subject was not particularly exciting, drawing was just too easy for him. And yet, when he was inspired, his execution was flawless; he had found, in the best of his late work, the perfect line' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele, Life and Work, New York, 2003, pp. 223 & 230).Expressionism was characterised by a deep exploration of identity, of individual inward analysis and questioning, and an unwavering scrutinization of a rapidly modernising world. In Austria, Egon Schiele was by far the movement's foremost exponent, swiftly leading him to become Austria's leading artist of the time before his untimely death on 31st October 1918, at the age of just 28. This astronomical rise to critical acclaim within his short lifetime goes some way to illustrate the utmost quality of his ability and the deep resonance his work found in contemporary society, though it was not without its trials. Generally unappreciated for many years after his death, we look back at Egon Schiele as one of the twentieth century's most prolific, confrontational, and challenging artists.As the youngest student enrolled at the Viennese Akademie der Bildenden Künste in 1906, it was not long before Schiele broke away to carve his own path through the streets of the capital, documenting his rampant adolescent sexual energy, together with the unceasing hypocrisies of 'civilised' Viennese society to which he belonged. Thus began one of art canon's finest examinations into the vulnerability of the human figure through an unabashed examination of the vagrants and prostitutes of Vienna, and of the artist himself.Schiele's works from the 1910-1911 period are known for their unforgiving frankness and provocative imagery as the artist focused intensely on questions concerning identity and the individual, sexuality, spirituality and death. This is often presented through the gazing youthful eyes of Vienna's street urchins, the explicit representation of prostitutes, or through the stark, emaciated nude figure of Schiele himself, contorted into varying positions and selves: 'Schiele the effeminate, the elegant, the dandy; Schiele the fearful, the anguished, the uncertain; Schiele the stoic, the angry; Schiele beautiful and Schiele hideous' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, p. 68).This period defined his public character as the rebellious maverick who sought to question, probe and shock, intending to expose people for how they really were, and the works somewhat echo the grotesque faces by Leonardo Da Vinci in their gruesome exaggeration. This shock factor certainly helped garner awareness for Schiele at the time but also had a profound effect on his rediscovery later in the twentieth century as longstanding rigid social structures were questioned and confronted more vigorously.This brazen approach to human depiction did however eventually result in the artist's brief incarceration following a string of incidents in rural Austria-Hungary in 1911-1912. Accused of kidnap, rape, and public immorality, he was ultimately only charged with the latter on account of his open display of erotic drawings in his studio home and served a month of jail time. This imprisonment, albeit brief, had a profound effect on the young artist and it was a major catalyst for his renewed approach, it 'checked the wayward slide of his adolescent impulses, shocking him back to reality so that he could complete the process of socialization and take his place in the adult world [...]. He had learned the hard way that his special artistic mission did not, after all, grant him immunity from society's strictures. If he wanted to protect the former, he would, in the future, have to obey the latter' (Kallir, op. cit., p. 127). Nevertheless, controversy can be of huge benefit to the up-and-coming artist, infamously the melancholic Expressionist Edvard Munch became a sensation overnight following national outcry over his works at the Verein Berliner Künstler in November 1892 – an event that ultimately birthed the German avant-garde. Ultimately, Schiele was alert to the profound commercial benefit of this scandal, with his name murmured across the lips of the art-conscious elite.'I want to start anew [...]. It seems to me that until now I have just been preparing the tools' (Schiele quoted in a letter to Anton Peschka in C. Nebehay, Egon Schiele, 1890-1918: Leben, Briefe, Gedichte, Salzburg & Vienna, 1979, p. 209).As Schiele matured emotionally, so he did artistically and by 1917-1918 his output had developed considerably, the period marked with a renewed creative vitality. His works, whilst still focused on the human disposition, comprised a more confident line displaying greater precision and fluidity as he sculpted his sitters with a series of simple loose black lines. Female sitters challengingly confront the viewer with a boldness and unflinching gaze illuminated through their simplified pictoral construction. The faceless doll-like figures of the 1914-1915 period are gone, replaced with a defiant realism. Schiele now appears to shift towards a voyeuristic separation from the model, allowing them ownership of the space, though the raw sensuality of his sitters is by no means diminished by his maturation of style. On the contrary, they themselves are presented with a new confidence and owned eroticism, unseen in previous years, the sexually explicit exchanged for a more tantalisingly suggestive experience.As Jane Kallir commented: 'Schiele's women are, by 1917-18, thoroughly modern. Like most modern women, they own their sexuality. The nude and semi-nude models take pride in their seductive bodies and are empowered by their allure [...]. Nor are they projections of the artist's ego. They combine the mystery and the specificity of complete, independent human beings' (J. Kallir, Egon Schiele's Women, Munich, 2012, p. 266).Indeed, of the present works, Sitzende Frau and Sitzende Frau mit Hut both illustrate this prowess openly, but also via minor subtleties. Found in the catalogue raisonné amongst a series of very similar works of a woman in the chronological stages of undress - some identified as Adele Harms - Sitzende Frau pulls us directly into a modelling session in Schiele's Heitzinger Hauptstraße studio. The model has begun to seductively remove her stocking from a cocked knee, her intimate undergarments hanging suggestively from her shoulders and her hair loosely bound, on the precipice of cascading freely – each element rendered with a minimal line, but successfully conveying the tangibility of a finished painting. Unlike the earlier models, she lacks a vulnerability, instead emanating a proud and defiant confidence, as well as perhaps a more illicit relationship with the artist. Sitzende Frau mit Hut alludes to a separate, more personal relationship, as she gazes directly outwards with a far more intimate and suggestive view. Ev... For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
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