Nude with Blue Stockings, Bending Forward

• Egon Schiele (1890–1918)
• 1912
• Pencil, gouache on paper
• Leopold Museum, Vienna

For this picture, Schiele mastered the challenge of foreshortening a nude figure seen at an angle from above. The model is bent forward, with sensitive details and a stable and clear structure. The viewer’s eyes are drawn to the curving line of the spine and the touches of colors along the outlines, and the shading lines next to them give the body its distinct three-dimensionality. Her emaciated body reveals the contours of the spine and muscles. For Schiele, thin bodies were one of the ways that he could portray human agonies and sufferings.