Egon Schiele
Häuser mit bunter Wäsche, “Vorstadt“ II, 1914
100.5 x 120.5 cm,
est: £22-30 million / $36-50 million
Egon Schiele’s ‘Vorstadt’ may fetch $50 million On 22 June 2011, Sotheby’s London will auction one of the most important paintings by EgonSchiele ever to come to the market. ‘Häuser mit bunter Wäsche, Vorstadt II’, a stunning 1914 cityscape, is expected to sell for £22-30 million / $36-50 million.]]>
May 24th 2011, source: Sotheby’s / theartwolf
The very strong painting comes to the market for the first time, and the seller is no other than the Leopold Museum in Vienna. In recent times, the Museum has been forced to spend several million euros to retain two of its masterpieces: $19 million for the ‘Portrait of Wally’ (confiscated by the Nazis to Lea Bondi-Jaray during World War II) and $5 million for “Häuser am Meer (Houses by the sea)”, seized from Jenny Steiner’s collection by the Nazis in 1938. Peter Weinhäupl, Director of the Leopold Museum, said that “while this painting will be missed, the (Leopold) museum is fortunate to hold eight further Schiele cityscapes of superb quality in its collection.”
“Houses with colourful Laundry, “Suburb” II” is one of Schiele’s best cityscapes, and Helena Newman, Chairman from the Impressionist & Modern Art department at Sotheby’s, described it as “a masterpiece of 20th-century art”. The painting is based on motifs drawn from Krumau, a town in Southern Bohemia to which Schiele and his lover Wally Neuzil moved in 1911. The press release includes some comments by Professor Dr Rudolf Leopold, founder of the Leopold Museum: “The colorful laundry (…) may in Schiele’s eyes have symbolized the still innocent and carefree lives of children and young people (…) Just behind the houses begins an open, empty no-man’s land”.
This is the first cityscape by Schiele to come to the market since 2006, when his landscape “Houses With Mountains” was sold for $22,4 million at Christie’s New York (an auction record for the artist).
Related content
Schiele’s ‘Portrait of Wally’ returns to the Leopold Museum, Vienna (July 2010)
Egon Schiele’s ‘women’ at Richard Nagy London (exhibition, 2011)
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