Stadtende (Häuserbogen III)

Stadtende (Häuserbogen III) — literally 'Town's End (Row of Houses III)' — was painted in 1918 and is held by the Universalmuseum Joanneum in Graz (Neue Galerie). The subject of a town's edge, where buildings give way to countryside, introduces a new spatial element into Schiele's townscape vocabulary: the threshold between built and unbuilt space. In his earlier Dead City paintings, the town was sealed and total, filling the canvas without margin or edge. By 1918, this spatial openness reflects a broader maturation of approach. The Joanneum's Neue Galerie in Graz developed important Schiele holdings through the early twentieth century, positioned as an important regional institution for Styrian and broader Austrian art. The late townscape series of 1918 — Mödling, Stadtende, and related works — represents Schiele's final engagement with architectural subjects, cut short by his death at twenty-eight in October of that year.

Oil on canvas shows the 1918 townscape style with its slightly more open spatial handling compared to the compressed Dead City works. The row of houses creates a horizontal band across the canvas, with more open sky or field visible at top and bottom than in the earlier series.