Portrait of the Painter Paris Von Gutersloh By

The painting I chose at the MIA is Portrait of the Painter Paris von Gutersloh by

Egon Schiele. This painting was started in 1918, but was never completed. The genre of

this piece is expressionist. Schiele was inspired to paint this painting of his friend

because he admired his extraordinary intellectual and artistic talents and sought to portray

him as a creative genius.

This painting is approximately 7 x 5 feet, and portrays a Caucasian man sitting on

a chair dressed in a white shirt, tie, slacks, red socks, and dress shoes. His gaze is

transfixed on the viewer's intensely. He has brown mop hair green-hazel eyes, and a blue

tie.

His hands are raised in the air at his eye level on either side of him. His right

palm faces the viewer, and his left palm faces him. It looks as if he could be imagining

himself to be holding something in a graceful manner. For me, it looked recognizable for

his hands to be practicing guitar chords on an imaginary guitar.

The background is a mix of intense warm colors, orange is dominant. A slight

horizon line is noticeable in the center of the painting. He is in an interior, but a very flat

looking interior. He is sitting on an orange chair that looks not completed in the painting.

The chair looks so flat that at first glance it looks as if the man is floating in midair.

On his face is a look of blankness and wonder. He looks as if he is thinking so

intensely that he actually is having hallucinations of touching things in front of him. He

is stuck in a daydream. He has an almost glazed over look