Mother with Two Children II

• Egon Schiele (1890–1918)
• 1915
• Oil on canvas
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

The mother in the painting is fully shrouded in a green cloth, except for the face and bare feet. Her sunken eyes and mouth suggest those of a skull. The sleeping child in her lap already seems to be dead. Schiele intentionally chose the classic composition of Pietà, the Virgin Mary holding the body of the dead Christ in her lap. Another child to the mother’s left seems to be floating in the air. The colored stripes of the child’s garment represent innocence and hope, but the facial expression betrays despair. Schiele’s troubled relationship with his own mother is expressed in this painting.