1915, Egon Schiele, Mother with Two Children II -- Leopold Museum (Vienna)
From the museum label: In this second (of three) versions of the subject Mother with Two Children, Schiele attempted to come to terms with the fact that his sister "Gerti" had given birth to two babies within scarcely a year's time. The mother in all three versions of Mother with Two Children may have been Marie Schiele or Anton Sr.'s mother Emilie Peschka, who often took care of Gerti's daughter. Her son, Anton Jr., modeled for the babies in Mother with Two Children Il and Ill. In both those paintings, one child is passive, depicted with closed or (in Schiele's allegorical parlance) "blind" eyes, while the other seems fully aware. The artist thus affirmed his belief that a person's ability (or inability) to thrive was innate, a product of nature rather than nurture.
1915, Egon Schiele, Mother with Two Children II -- Leopold Museum (Vienna)
From the museum label: In this second (of three) versions of the subject Mother with Two Children, Schiele attempted to come to terms with the fact that his sister "Gerti" had given birth to two babies within scarcely a year's time. The mother in all three versions of Mother with Two Children may have been Marie Schiele or Anton Sr.'s mother Emilie Peschka, who often took care of Gerti's daughter. Her son, Anton Jr., modeled for the babies in Mother with Two Children Il and Ill. In both those paintings, one child is passive, depicted with closed or (in Schiele's allegorical parlance) "blind" eyes, while the other seems fully aware. The artist thus affirmed his belief that a person's ability (or inability) to thrive was innate, a product of nature rather than nurture.