Portrait of Wally Neuzil

This woman nicknamed Wally, gazing out of the painting with wide-open, outsized eyes, was of enormous importance to the young Schiele.The portrait, of balanced composition, is a counterpart to the Self-Portrait with Chinese Lantern Fruit, which the artist created around the same time.When Schiele was taken into investigative custody in April 1912, she brought him painting supplies and an orange which, as Schiele noted in his diary, represented his “sole light” during these dark days.The main charge which he faced—abduction of a minor—proved groundless, but the court even so proceeded to convict him of the “distribution of indecent drawings.”Schiele was to spend a total of 24 days in prison, during which he painted several sketches.