Newborn with Bent Knees
Black chalk, gouache on paper, 43.2 x 28.9 cm, by Egon Schiele, 1910
Leopold Museum, Vienna

In this work, and others, Schiele captures the profound moment of the birth of babies, where the emergence of the body signifies its abrupt entry into the world: vulnerable newborns, their naked forms depicted without any protective cover, lie abandoned at this pivotal threshold. Such stark imagery was made possible through Schiele's close relationship with the gynaecologist Erwin von Graff, who granted the artist access to clinical settings and introduced him to the medical perspective on the human body. Apart from these portrayals of infancy, Schiele also explored the theme of maternity during this period, as evidenced by his other drawings depicting women in a state of pregnancy.