Egon Schiele: The Complete Works Online, the first digital catalogue raisonné of the renowned Austrian Expressionist, is now online at www.egonschieleonline.org. Notable for its unprecedented scope, the publication will cover the artist’s oeuvre in its entirety: over 400 paintings; close to 3,000 watercolors and drawings; 21 sketchbooks; 17 graphics; and 4 sculptures. Egon Schiele Online will eventually include more than 200 works authenticated since the publication of Jane Kallir’s previous Schiele catalogue raisonné in 1998. This is the first publication from the Kallir Research Institute, a non-profit organization founded last year by Kallir, co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne.

Much more than a compendium of works, Egon Schiele: The Complete Works Online takes full advantage of the digital realm to allow for an integrated study of Schiele’s oeuvre. Given the abundance of content included and the sheer volume of Schiele’s work, the new catalogue raisonné is being rolled out in two parts. Phase I, the launch of which coincides with the 100th anniversary of the artist’s death, is dedicated to his paintings, graphics, sketchbooks, and sculptures. Newly authenticated works in Phase I comprise 16 oils, all dating to Schiele’s early years.

“While not representative of the artist’s now-iconic style, the newly discovered oils document his early development,” notes Jane Kallir. “Whereas formerly, the influence of contemporaneous styles, like Impressionism, on the early paintings made it difficult to distinguish Schiele's work from that of other artists, today we can see that the artist’s unique features, like the interplay of line and color, are already evident.”

Phase II will be unveiled in late 2019, and will present the artist’s watercolors and drawings, including more than 200 newly authenticated works on paper. Also to be added in the course of time are scans of rare, early exhibition catalogues, ancillary photo documentation (of people and places depicted in the works), dossiers on Schiele's principal collectors and links to the artist’s writings.

Egon Schiele: The Complete Works Online offers access to an expansive database that includes up-to-date information on provenance, exhibition history and literature, a comprehensive illustrated biography, and ancillary scholar texts. The cross-linking of material offers new context and pathways for understanding Schiele’s life and work. Users can call up images of all the paintings in an exhibition with a click. A user-friendly visual interface allows for multiple organizational options. Paintings, for example, can be quickly searched by year, catalogue number or range of numbers, subject, title, or by any combination of these, making research swift and accurate. The database and website have been customized to reflect the idiosyncrasies of Schiele’s artistic practice.

Jane Kallir is the world’s leading expert on Egon Schiele. Her scholarship is currently included in catalogue essays accompanying three commemorative exhibitions in this centenary year:  Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris (October 3, 2018 – January 14, 2019); Belvedere, Vienna (October 19, 2018 – February 17, 2019), and Royal Academy, London (November 4, 2018 - February 3, 2019). Kallir is also curating the exhibition Egon Schiele: In Search of the Perfect Line with nearly 50 watercolors and drawings drawn from private collections around the world at Galerie St. Etienne from November 1, 2018 through March 2, 2019.

The gallery’s relationship with Schiele goes back to Austria in the early 1920s. Jane Kallir’s grandfather, Otto Kallir, inaugurated his Neue Galerie in Vienna in 1923 with a comprehensive Schiele presentation. Five years later, he organized a major show to mark the tenth anniversary of Schiele’s death. In 1938, he fled Austria with an inventory of Schiele works, and in 1939 he opened Galerie St. Etienne in New York City.  In 1941, he organized Schiele’s first American solo show.

Jane Kallir became co-director of the gallery, along with Hildegard Bachert, her grandfather’s longtime associate, upon his death in 1978. In addition to authoring two previous Schiele catalogue raisonnés, in 1990 and 1998, she has organized numerous exhibitions for major museums around the world, on the artist as well as his fellow Austrian and German Expressionists.

About the Galerie St. Etienne

The Galerie St. Etienne, located at 24 West 57th Street in New York City, is the oldest gallery in the United States specializing in Expressionism and Self-Taught Art. It was established in 1939 by Otto Kallir, previously founder of the Neue Galerie in Vienna, a principal exponent of German and Austrian modernism. The Galerie St. Etienne provided America with a first look at the art of Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Alfred Kubin, Paula Modersohn-Becker, and Egon Schiele. Today, its venerable standing continues under the direction of Jane Kallir, Otto’s granddaughter, and Hildegard Bachert, whose scholarship and expertise extend around the world. Jane Kallir curated the enormously popular show The Women of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna in 2016. The Galerie St. Etienne participates in the Winter Show and Art Basel.