Plate V from the collection *Zeichnungen* (“ Drawings”), a major volume devoted to Egon Schiele’s graphic work, published by the Richard Lanyi bookstore in Vienna in 1917 and printed by Max Jaffé in a limited edition of 400 numbered copies. Produced using the collotype process, this print faithfully reproduces the nuances and the dynamic quality of the original work’s lines.
The collotype reproduces the original 1916 work, executed in gouache and black pencil on paper, now housed at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. The subject is a young private first class, an Einjährig-Freiwilliger; a status that allowed educated young men to serve one year of military service instead of three. Schiele was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army a few days after his wedding and continued to draw and paint. Far from war propaganda, Schiele depicts the corporal here in a dreamy, contemplative, and somewhat resigned pose.
The plates from the *Zeichnungen* collection hold a special place in the reception of Schiele’s work. As evidence of the early dissemination of his graphic art among art lovers and collectors of his time, they are now valuable documents for the history of Viennese art publishing.
