Drawing Seated
Woman with Bent Knees (Edith) on display from 24 September to 11 October 2026
Drawing Self-Portrait
on display from 13 October to 25 October 2026
This year,
Czech Post has issued a commemorative postage stamp displaying Egon
Schiele’s iconic drawing Seated Woman with Bent Knees (Edith) from 1917,
to mark the occasion of the 230th anniversary of the founding of the National
Gallery in Prague. The original artwork will be on display exceptionally for
this occasion as part of the exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the Long Century,
after which it shall make way for another of Schiele’s drawings, namely Self-Portrait
from 1914. The drawings cannot be exhibited permanently, since light causes
the colours to fade, and the paper to become yellow and brittle.
The two
artworks present characteristic aspects of Schiele’s oeuvre, in which drawing
served as a means of direct expression. The artist deformed the human,
primarily the female body, accentuating psychological tension by means of
unusual gestures and poses. Seated Woman with Bent Knees depicts a model
who is most probably his wife Edith Harms, while Self-Portrait, through
the vehicle of his facial expression and nervous gestures, conveys the artist’s
own state of mind. The drawings were purchased in 1930 by the German section of
the Modern Gallery – the second predecessor to the NGP – from the Würthle &
Sohn art gallery and dealership in Vienna.
Venue: 4th
Floor, Trade Fair Palace, as part of the exhibition 1796–1918: Art of the
Long Century
Curator:
Petra Kolářová
