Artist | Egon Schiele

Year | 1915

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

150 × 180 cm

Location

The Belvedere : Upper Belvedere →

Death and the Maiden

In this existential work, Egon Schiele explores themes of transience and death through a biographical lens. The painting depicts a couple in an unstable posture; the young woman, Schiele's long-time partner and model Wally Neuzil, clings to her lover with both arms, while the man—a self-portrait of Schiele—stares into space. Created during the period when Schiele left Neuzil to marry Edith Harms, the fragile balance of the figures suggests a moment on the verge of shattering.