Manuscript by Egon Schiele
Leopold Museum, Vienna
ESDA ID
142
Nebehay 1979
Nicht gelistet/Not listed
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 4498
Place
Bregenz
Date
18th Aug. 1912 (handwritten)
Material/technique
Pencil, residues of green oil paint on paper
Dimensions
20,3 x 15,1 cm (page)
Transcription
[Translation:]
On 18th August 1912
One needs to observe and experience the world with naïve, pure eyes in order to attain a great weltanschauung; that is a living cult. – The proper tone is a book which, for some, may be nice to consult, but proves itself completely useless in the world; in other words, there are those who should live through books and those who exist through themselves; who are the better ones? – that is clear. – Few see the sun and everyone else must read novels and novellas in order to finally realize that there is a light.
||
And then there are relatively broad age differences in order to know the real truth. The “many” are those who are dependent upon each other, – the people. – The “few” are the direct leaders of the world because they introduce only that which is new and are therefore repugnant; that should be clear enough. Beyond that are the “fighting” - leaders. – The intellect plays one of the largest roles: “Who would perceive another being who, in comparison, is not only slighter of body and mind but also soulless”? or even “greet” him beneath the sun’s bright shine? –
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Not only: that it is tactless to hold accountable a person with a free soul and to level “moral” charges against him can be seen from the introduction above as a mathematic equation. – One battles against capital and the philistines; “the large spirit wishes to see the smaller one equally large” whereas “the small spirit forever wishes to overshadow every small spirit around him. – That is a lack of will and whatever else. – She was small and grew
||
increasingly larger because of me; whatever desires to hinder her development is possessed by evil intentions.
– Envy those who see beauty in everything in the world. –
Egon Schiele
On 18th August 1912
One needs to observe and experience the world with naïve, pure eyes in order to attain a great weltanschauung; that is a living cult. – The proper tone is a book which, for some, may be nice to consult, but proves itself completely useless in the world; in other words, there are those who should live through books and those who exist through themselves; who are the better ones? – that is clear. – Few see the sun and everyone else must read novels and novellas in order to finally realize that there is a light.
||
And then there are relatively broad age differences in order to know the real truth. The “many” are those who are dependent upon each other, – the people. – The “few” are the direct leaders of the world because they introduce only that which is new and are therefore repugnant; that should be clear enough. Beyond that are the “fighting” - leaders. – The intellect plays one of the largest roles: “Who would perceive another being who, in comparison, is not only slighter of body and mind but also soulless”? or even “greet” him beneath the sun’s bright shine? –
||
Not only: that it is tactless to hold accountable a person with a free soul and to level “moral” charges against him can be seen from the introduction above as a mathematic equation. – One battles against capital and the philistines; “the large spirit wishes to see the smaller one equally large” whereas “the small spirit forever wishes to overshadow every small spirit around him. – That is a lack of will and whatever else. – She was small and grew
||
increasingly larger because of me; whatever desires to hinder her development is possessed by evil intentions.
– Envy those who see beauty in everything in the world. –
Egon Schiele
Provenance
Arthur Roessler, Wien
Max Wagner, Wien
1987: Privatbesitz (Ankauf Sotheby’s, London, Auktion 26./27.11.1987, lot 206)
1994: Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (Stiftung)
Max Wagner, Wien
1987: Privatbesitz (Ankauf Sotheby’s, London, Auktion 26./27.11.1987, lot 206)
1994: Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (Stiftung)
Recorded in
Leopold Museum 2008, pp. 123–126
Owner
Signee
Image credit
Leopold Museum, Vienna
PURL: https://www.egonschiele.at/142