Egon Schiele’s death mask—a bronze cast of the celebrated Austrian expressionist’s face made shortly after his death—sold at Sloane Street Auctions on October 23rd for £19,000 ($24,600). The result amounted to 10 times the mask’s presale estimate.
The Death Mask of Egon Schiele (1918) was made by the Austrian sculptor Gustinus Ambrosi two days after Schiele died from the Spanish flu in 1918. Ambrosi visited Schiele’s coffin and made a plaster mold for the bronze death mask. The sculptor made four copies, three of which he gifted to publisher Richard Lanyi, art critic Arthur Rossler, and Schiele’s mother. Ambrosi and Schiele both later represented Austria at the 1925 Biennale di Roma, though the two artists never met in life.
Born in 1890, Schiele was mentored by Gustav Klimt after dropping out of the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Vienna. His early works took on the style of his mentor. Later, Schiele developed a distinctive style of portraiture characterized by fluid, elongated figures, which were often nude. He often utilized a continuous drawing technique, rendering his subjects with a single, unbroken line.
The artist avoided conscription for World War I for nearly a year but was drafted in 1915. In 1917, he returned to Vienna, where he produced new work prolifically until his death at the age of 28 in October 1918.
During his life, Schiele exhibited his work across Europe, including in Dresden, Germany; Zürich; and Prague. Shortly before his death, he was invited to participate in the Vienna Secession’s 49th exhibition, presenting 50 of his works as well as designing the exhibition poster. Today, the largest collections of his work are held at the Leopold Museum in Vienna; the Egon Schiele Museum in Tulln, Austria; and the Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.
Schiele’s auction record was set by his painting Häuser mit bunter Wäsche (Vorstadt II) (1914), which fetched $40 million at Sotheby’s in 2011.
