Nearly 125 years from the birth of Egon Schiele whose work I was recently perusing when I came across this evocative and soulful painting of a captured Russian Officer. The expression and demeanour clearly express his sense of resignation and the general apathy induced by the futility of war. In Vienna 1916 there were clearly many Russian prisoners and they appear to have been painted with the same compassion. The drawing of the girl also seems to convey this a similar human quality.
