Mountain Stream
1917
Medium
crayon on wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 29.9 × 45.8 cm (11 3/4 × 18 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Ruth Cole Kainen
Accession Number
2012.92.115
Art Historical Context
Egon Schiele's *Mountain Stream* (1917) captures the raw energy of nature through the lens of Austrian Expressionism. Created during the final years of World War I, when Schiele himself served briefly on the Eastern Front before being reassigned to administrative duties, this drawing reflects a momentary escape into the Austrian countryside. Known primarily for his haunting portraits and contorted nudes, Schiele rarely focused on pure landscapes, making this work a fascinating outlier in his oeuvre. Its bold, jagged lines evoke the turbulent rush of water amid alpine peaks, embodying the artis...
About the Artist
Egon Schiele · 1890–1918
Egon Schiele (1890-1918) stands as one of the most provocative and psychologically penetrating artists of early twentieth-century European modernism. Born in Tulln an der Donau, Austria-Hungary, Schiele's brief but intensely productive life ended tragically at age twenty-eight when he and his pregnant wife Edith succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic, mere days apart. Despite his truncated career, ...