Reinerbub (Bildnis Herbert Reiner)

About this artwork

1910 beauftragt der renommierte Orthopäde Max Reiner den jungen Maler Egon Schiele, seinen damals fünfjährigen Sohn Herbert zu porträtieren. Der Künstler zeigt diesen vor einer leeren Fläche in einem roten Gewand, das ihn wie ein lockerer Mantel umhüllt. Keinerlei Gegenstände verweisen auf das Kindesalter des Dargestellten. Auffallend sind hingegen die derben Hände, die deutlich älter wirken als der Porträtierte selbst und in Kontrast zum leuchtend-unschuldigen Blick des Knaben stehen. Schiele m...

Art Historical Context

Egon Schiele painted *Reinerbub (Portrait of Herbert Reiner)* in 1910 after receiving a commission from the Viennese orthopedic surgeon Max Reiner to portray his five-year-old son. At just twenty years old, Schiele was already developing his distinctive Expressionist approach, marked by psychological intensity and simplified forms. The square canvas, one of several similar portraits he created that year, presents young Herbert against a stark, empty background. Dressed in a loose red garment that resembles a cloak, the boy appears timeless rather than childlike, with no toys or domestic details to suggest his age. The most striking feature is the contrast between the child’s luminous, innocent gaze and his large, roughly painted hands, which seem to belong to an older person. This deliberate tension draws attention to the physical presence of the sitter while hinting at the fleeting nature of youth. Working in oil on canvas, Schiele used bold outlines and muted surroundings to focus entirely on the figure, a technique that would become central to his portraiture. Today in the Belvedere Collection, the work offers insight into Schiele’s early career and his ability to transform a conventional commission into a quietly unsettling study of innocence and maturity.

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, ...