Kneeling Woman with a Gray Cape (Wally Neuzil)

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

This lively watercolor study portrays Egon Schiele’s lover and model, Wally Neuzil. Her reddish hair and flushed cheeks form a contrast with the dark gray of her cloak. The folds of the fabric are wonderfully rendered as if light is falling on them from above. Neuzil became close with Schiele in 1911 and acted as his favorite model for many of his drawings including nudes. They parted in 1915 as impoverished Schiele decided marry Edith Harms, a woman from a middle-class family.