Egon Scheile's Schlafender Mann beats estimate by 201%

Egon Scheile's Schlafender Mann (1910) led a sale of prints at Swann Auction Galleries on September 24 in New York.

It made $905,000 against a $300,000 estimate, an increase of 201.6%.

Egon Scheile Swann
Egon Scheile was a pioneering Austrian artist 

Swann explained prior to the sale: "This portrait is a stunning example of Schiele's experimentation with color and line, dating from a significant peak in his creative output in 1910, a year during which he gave particular focus to studies of the male form.

"Though it is a clothed portrait, the angularity in Schlafender Mann parallels the emaciated figure-type common in Schiele's male nudes."

Scheile (1890-1918) was an Austrian artist whose work proved particularly influential on the expressionists.

His record stands at £24.7m ($37.6m) for Hauser mit bunter Wasche Vorstadt II (1914), which sold at Sotheby's in 2011.

Gustav Klimt's Umarmen Akte also sold well, realising $125,000 against a $60,000 estimate (up 108.3%).

The auction house comments: "Among Klimt's most recognizable masterworks is his oil and gold leaf painting The Kiss (1908-09), depicting an embracing couple similar to the figures in the current work and dating from the same time.

"In both compositions, Klimt succeeded in depicting humanity at its most vulnerable, in the height of passion. Many works in Klimt's oeuvre, especially his drawings, address the female form with this clear eroticism."

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