Two Women Embracing, 1915

The year 1915 marked an important milestone in Schiele’s life. He separated from his former partner and married the middle-class Edith Harms. The sudden blossoming of this romantic love influenced Schiele’s art. Lesbianism was not a new topic in his works, just as the frank portrayal of all manifestations of sexuality was a characteristic feature of Viennese art at the turn of the century. Such subjects were also treated in fine art photography of the period, a medium with which Schiele also experimented and whose effect can be felt in this portrait of a couple, depicted from an unusual, overhead angle.