Wally Neuzil : a special woman and a therapist

Abstract

Wally Neuzil was Egon Schiele’s companion for just four years. She was also the model who posed for many of his drawings and watercolors. Thinking about this woman, there is one thing that is particularly striking: it is her gaze – her strangely reticent, quietly searching gaze. It emanates from her bright, open eyes, barring the way to nothing and no one, perhaps almost seen as light emerging from them. Through her gaze she conveyed not only an inner calm, but also a mirror that neither distorted nor suppressed. Wally had a quiet power – something we can still see today in the eyes of the portraits that Schiele created of her. The exhibition that Leopold Museum in Vienna dedicated to Wally’s biography and her professions describes the fate of a woman at the fin de siecle living a life without taboos and with a profound humanity. Wally Neuzil was not only Egon Schiele’s model from early 1911 but also his lover and faithful companion until the spring of 1915. While a model for Schiele, Wally also worked as a sales assistant, a cashier and mannequin at a clothing store.