Egon Schiele - "The Hug, 1917".

Egon Schiele: “The Hug, 1917"

Authorized offset litho, produced on premium pearl matte satin.
Condition: the work is in excellent condition.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) was one of the most radical figures of Austrian Expressionism. A protegé of Gustav Klimt, he developed a very personal visual language characterized by angular lines, distorted anatomy, raw erotism, and unwavering psychological intensity. His work decisively broke with academic ideals of beauty and instead focused on vulnerability, sexuality, and existential tension.

Despite his short life, cut down by the Spanish flu at only 28 years old, Schiele produced an extraordinary amount of drawings, watercolors, and paintings that deeply shaped modern figurative art.

In the art market, Schiele’s works are among the most sought-after from the early 20th century. Large oil paintings regularly fetch tens of millions of euros at auction, while works on paper, especially signed, well-preserved drawings and watercolor pieces, are also highly valued and often reach seven-figure prices. Their rarity, historical importance, and unmistakable style form the basis for a consistently strong and resilient market demand.

The Hug, painted in 1917, is one of Schiele’s most powerful late works and a mature synthesis of his themes. The composition shows two intertwined figures entwined in an intimate, almost desperate embrace. Their bodies are rendered with taut muscles, angular limbs, and expressive distortion, emphasizing emotional urgency over sensual harmony.
The figures lie on a crumpled white sheet that serves both as a compositional anchor and as a psychological space, detached from any narrative context. The background is ruggedly painted, with visible brushstrokes that reinforce the sense of immediacy.

The Hug balances tenderness and fear, love and dependence, and reflects Schiele’s focus in his later period on human connectedness as both salvation and vulnerability. Compared with his earlier, harsher erotic works, The Hug shows greater emotional depth and painterly richness, while preserving the unmistakable intensity.

Never matted and stored in a dark archival facility between protective acid-free paper.
The shown photos are part of the description.

This artwork is carefully and sturdily packaged and shipped in protective acid-free paper.
No shipping to the Canary Islands.

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