Portrait of Paris von Gütersloh (1887-1973)

Due to Schiele's death from an influenza epidemic in 1918, he never completed this painting of his friend Paris von Gütersloh. Nonetheless, it remains a masterpiece of Austrian Expressionist portraiture. Gütersloh was a painter, writer, actor, producer, and stage designer, who wrote the first study of Schiele's art in 1911. Schiele admired his friend's extraordinary intellectual and artistic talents and sought to portray him as a creative genius. With his hands elevated in a gesture of both attraction and repulsion, Gütersloh is shown with his eyes transfixed and body tense at the moment of artistic inspiration.

Recent conservation of this picture was made possible by a generous contribution from an anonymous patron.