Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses 2015 Egon Schiele’s Double Self Portraiture Lori Anne Felton Bryn Mawr College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations Custom Citation Felton, Lori Anne. “Egon Schiele’s Double Self Portraiture” PhD diss., Bryn Mawr College, 2015. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. https://repository.brynmawr.edu/dissertations/133 For more information, please contact [email protected]. EGON SCHIELE’S DOUBLE SELF-PORTRAITURE By LORI ANNE FELTON October 9, 2015 Submitted to the Faculty of Bryn Mawr College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History of Art ABSTRACT With few visual precedents, Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was the first artist to systematically explore double self-portraiture’s potential to convey multiple meanings, by painting, drawing and collaboratively photographing thirteen works in the genre. In this dissertation, I argue that these works reflect Schiele’s interest in establishing a deep engagement with the viewer. I consider Schiele’s double self-portraiture in two distinct categories: as an original, intended group from 1910 and 1911 that, borrowing from two of the works’ titles, I call the Self-Seers, and as a sequence of unique, experimental works after 1913. While the Self-Seers paintings exhibit Schiele’s concern with the act of viewing, his subsequent works suggest double self-portraiture’s potential to be multivalent, engaging with the opposite qualities such as inner and outer, the spiritual and the mundane, and death and life in a highly experimental, yet strategic manner. To Schiele, the work of art is itself an animate being and art itself is eternal. His views on art’s eternal nature stand in stark contrast to the impermanence of selfhood that scholars agree was his deepest concern, as evinced by his serial self-portraits. While his double self-portraits evoke similar themes found in the Romantic Doppelgänger topos, Schiele’s interpretation of topics such as mirror images, shadows, and death are distinct from it because he does not depict his double as a threat. Instead, the doubles beseech the viewer to be understood differently, for their kinship with the metaphysical to be explored and even embraced. These singular works address Schiele’s creative concerns as well as the preoccupations of Viennese culture, and they display his capacity to create art that is thoughtful and thought provoking, presenting an unexamined facet of Expressionistic art. 1 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to offer my deepest gratitude to countless individuals who have shown me generosity and support. I must name a selection of people and institutions below for their extraordinary support and kindness, but I am no less grateful to those who remain unmentioned. My dissertation advisor, Christiane Hertel, has been especially generous with her time, supportive, rigorous, and intellectually challenging, while always remaining kind-hearted. I could not imagine a more fitting advisory relationship. Alessandra Comini, a pioneer Schiele scholar, has likewise been incredibly generous and supportive of my work, adopting me as a mentee in 2011 and becoming a friend throughout the years. Johann Thomas Ambrózy has been a guide and mentor to me since 2011, when he very kindly showed me the ropes on conducting my research in Vienna and shared his own research material with me. My committee members, Steven Levine, Imke Meyer, and Lisa Saltzman have been challenging, stimulating, and supportive instructors and mentors, and they will each find elements of their teachings in this dissertation. Pedro Marenco served as my outside committee chair, for which I am thankful. The Fulbright Commission funded my research year in Vienna in 2011-2012, and their outstanding support was not only financial, but also bureaucratic and social. I wish to thank the United States Congress and the Austrian National Government for continuing to fund this extremely important exchange program for future scholars. I am also deeply indebted to Bryn Mawr College for generously supporting my scholarship from 2012-2015, and I extend my deepest gratitude to the Theodore Ely Grant for their contribution to my funding in my final year. I wish to thank the entire curatorial and library staff of the Albertina Museum, the Belvedere Museum and Library, the Lentos Museum, the Leopold Museum and Library, the Wien Museum, and the Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, especially Sandra Tretter of the Leopold Museum, Stella Rollig of the Lentos Museum, and Martina Pichler of the Albertina Museum. I would like to extend special thanks to Bernard Eipper of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, who generously shared his knowledge as a conservator with me. I am similarly indebted to Jane Kallir for her invitation to conduct research at the Galerie St. Etienne in New York. A great community of fellow scholars, friends, and family has provided its support throughout the years. Jennifer Egolf inspired me to begin. Chris Brooks encouraged me to finish. Maeve Doyle, Tienfong Ho, and Jamie Richardson have steadfastly supported me in a way that others could not. Manuela Wade, Vera Pummer, and Heidi Danzl assisted me with complicated translations. I am indebted to countless friends in Europe and in the States who have listened to my ideas, bought me drinks, meals, and housed this itinerant scholar. I dedicate this dissertation to several family members, namely my parents, Bill and Kitty Felton, for their bewildered tolerance of me living abroad for several years, and likewise to my sisters, Barb, Aubrey, and Janice, for their unyielding encouragement and moral support. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………......………...1 LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………….……………4 INTRODUCTION: DOUBLE TROUBLE: THE DOUBLE SELF-PORTRAITS AS AN INDEPENDENT CATEGORY..............................................................................9 1. EGON SCHIELE’S DOUBLE SELF-PORTRAITS AND DOUBLING IN VIENNA 1900....................................................................................................................................32 1.1 The Double and Early Psychoanalysis.............................................................36 1.2 Doubling as a Device in Vienna 1900.............................................................43 1.3 Images of Doubles in Vienna 1900..................................................................58 2. ARTISTIC IDENTITY AND THE YOUNG ARTIST.................................................68 2.1 Painting the Artist: Schiele’s Early Self-Portraits (1906-1909)......................69 2.2 Doubles and Opposites....................................................................................76 2.3 Nude Study: A Fresh Perspective in the Mirror...............................................80 2.4 Modern and Eternal: An Eclectic New Style...................................................84 3. THE 1910-1911 DOUBLE SELF-PORTRAITS: “GREAT PERSONALITIES” AND “SELF-SEERS”.................................................................................................................90 3.1 “Great Personalities”.......................................................................................93 3.2 The Self-Seers as a Medium to Sight.............................................................108 4. AFTER THE SELF-SEERS: THE “INNER LIGHT OF THE PAINTING”.............133 4.1 The Doubled Self and the Mirror...................................................................138 4.2 Schiele’s Reinterpretation of The Self-Seers Concepts.................................147 4.3 Kristallgestalten: The “Inner Light of the Painting”.....................................155 4.4 Unveiling the Truth........................................................................................166 CONCLUSION................................................................................................................186 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................194 3 LIST OF FIGURES 1. Egon Schiele, Transfiguration (The Blind II), 1915, oil on canvas, (78 3/4 x 67 3/4”). Vienna: Leopold Museum. 2. Egon Schiele, Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait), 1910, oil on canvas, (60 x 59”). Vienna: Leopold Museum. 3. Egon Schiele, The Self-Seers I (Double Self-Portrait), 1910, oil on canvas, (31 1/2 x 31 3/8”). Presumed lost. 1.1. Egon Schiele, The Self-Seers I (Double Self-Portrait), 1910, oil on canvas, (31 1/2 x 31 3/8”). Presumed lost. 1.2. Egon Schiele, The Self-Seers II (Death and Man), 1911, oil on canvas, (31 5/8 x 31 1/2”). Vienna: Leopold Museum. 1.3. Arnold Böcklin, Self-Portrait with Fiddling Death, 1872, oil on canvas, (29.5 × 24”). Berlin: Alte Nationalgalerie. 1.4. Ignác Šechtl. Double Self-Portrait as a Laboratory Worker and a Chemist, c. 1870, photograph. Tábor: Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography. 1.5. Anton Joseph Trčka, Trick photograph of Schiele shown twice, 1914, photograph. Český Krumlov: Egon Schiele Art Centrum. 1.6. Lorenzo Lotto. Portrait of a Goldsmith in Three Views, 1525-1535, oil on canvas, (52 x 79 cm.). Vienna: Kunsthistorisches Museum. 1.7. Hans von Aachen, Two Laughing Young Men (Double Self-Portrait), ca. 1574, oil on oak panel, (48×38.5 cm.). Kroměříž: Olomouc Archdiocese Museum. 2.1. Egon Schiele,