Schiele’s exceptional talent was recognized by teachers at the academy at a very young age. When his mother asked if her son had any talent, Schiele's conservative teacher Christian Griepenkerl replied: "Yes, far too much." (Quoted from: Jane Kallir, New York 1990, p. 44) By 1908, Schiele had already lost his interest in the lessons at the academy and rarely attended class. The young artist was already in the process of an artistic self-discovery and the formulation of his very own visual language.

The works of his contemporaries had a far greater influence on "becoming an artist" than the rigid teaching methods at the academy. Schiele got to know the long-established star of the Viennese avant-garde Gustav Klimt as early as in 1907, but the comprehensive ‘Wiener Kunstschau’ (Vienna Art Show) in the year the present drawing was created, allowed Schiele to see and study a large number of works by the great master. Today it is generally regarded as the most groundbreaking cultural event of Viennese Modernism. A large number of works by around 130 artists were on display, among them works by Josef Hoffmann, Carl Moll, Oskar Kokoschka and Max Oppenheimer, but the 16 works by Gustav Klimt (including "Danaë" , "Water Serpents 1" and "The Kiss") exhibited in a separate room, left the most lasting impression on Schiele. The influence that the works he had seen there remains obvious in Schiele's oeuvre until 1909.

This also applies to the drawing offered here, in which observers apparently recognize the echo of Klimt's pictorial world. The exact symmetry, the frontal perspective and the self-confident look of the sitter bear certain similarities to Klimt's "Judith" (1901, Belvedere, Vienna) or the protagonist in "Die Medizin", one of the unfortunately burned faculty pictures (1901-1907), however, it does not resemble any of the Klimt works shown at the art show. Schiele had grown far beyond the veneration and imitation of his role model. By that point, he had already developed his own means of expression and an individual graphic style characterized by strong contours, unique pictorial ideas and compositions, as well as by the skillful use of blank surfaces. With the extreme close-up view from below, the directness and almost erotic intimacy of the sitter’s piercing glance, as well as the provocative use of red lips, Schiele already hints at his later, radical depictions of nudes in distorted poses, with alienated limbs and the fragmentary use of color as an expression of emotion, which is so characteristic of his work. [CH]