Portrait of Victor Ritter von Bauer

On 5 January 1918, in the last year of the war, Schiele noted in his notebook a bust of R. von Bauer. Victor Ritter von Bauer was a wealthy industrialist with a passion for travel and flying, who in 1915 had founded an Institute for Cultural Research in Vienna. The commission came through its editorial director, Erwin Hanslik, whom the painter had met the previous autumn. The planned bust grew into this large seated figure. The industrialist sits in a pale suit on a plain wooden armchair with a striped cushion, his face turned away, his long hands resting on one knee, the whole room washed in yellow. At his cuff is a small cufflink, one of a Chinese gold pair he was said never to go without. Schiele signed and dated the canvas at the bottom, and it was sold that same year. The Belvedere bought it in 1930.