"The painter is not quite the artist - it is the spirit that created art"

Schiele, Egon, Austrian artist (1890-1918). Zeichnungen - Egon Schiele: 12 Blätter in Originalgrösse.

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The only set of reproductions of Schiele drawings issued during the artist's lifetime and under his supervision: an unnumbered proof copy inscribed by the 26-year-old Schiele to his 24-year-old wife Edith (née Harms) and signed with his monogram. The inscription reads: "Der Maler ist noch nicht der Künstler, - / Es ist der Geist der Kunst geschaffen hat. / zum 30. Mai 1917 / meiner lieben Frau" ("The painter is not quite the artist - it is the spirit that created art. For my dear wife on 30 May 1917"). Poignantly, Edith would succumb to the Spanish flu just over a year later, six months pregnant, followed three days later by Schiele himself.

The portfolio is accompanied by seven letters by the publisher Richard Lányi (1884-1942) to Schiele. In them Lányi urges Schiele to design the title-page himself and encloses a two-page diagram suggesting the layout. He recommends that two identical portfolios should be brought out, one for Schiele's drawings and a second for paintings (the latter was not realised, probably due to Schiele's untimely death). On 26 May 1917 he sends Schiele the "430 (or 435)" title-pages with instructions on numbering them: "Bitte No. 1-400 zu numerieren, den Rest bitte statt der Nummer mit 'Probedruck' zu bezeichnen". Schiele appears to have completed this task on May 30th, when he inscribed the present supernumerary proof copy to his wife.

The introduction page was later signed and inscribed by the writer and critic Leopold Liegler (1882-1949), a friend of Lányi and Karl Kraus, identifying himself as the author of this text: "Diese Einleitung wurde von mir auf Wunsch des Verlegers verfasst" (Vienna, 17 November 1942).