Background

Ethnicity: Egon Schiele's father came from Vienna, Austria. As to the painter's mother, she was Czech.

Egon Schiele was born on June 12, 1890, in Tulln, Austria. He was a son of Adolf Schiele, station master, and Marie Schiele (maiden name Soukup).

Education

After Egon Schiele's father death of syphilis, the fifteen-year-old boy was raised by his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczek.

Schiele attended Krems secondary school in Austria. His wasn't a brilliant pupil, but had some success in athletics and drawing (Schiele liked to draw trains in his childhood, but his father demolished his sketches). At school, Schiele revealed his painting talent and was sent by his uncle to Ludwig Karl Strauch, an Austrian painter, to pursue his training.

At the age of sixteen, Egon Schiele entered the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna (currently the University of Applied Arts Vienna), notable for his famous student Gustav Klimt. A year later, Egon was transferred to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. There, he was taught by a strict painter Christian Griepenkerl whose teaching manner pushed Schiele to leave the institution after almost three years of studies. During the studies, Schiele met Gustav Klimt who admired the young artist's work and became his mentor.

Career

Egon Schiele's first paintings created in 1907 and 1909 were influenced in style by Gustav Klimt who helped the growth of Schiele's early career by introducing him to other famous artists of the time such as Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Jan Toorop, and Wiener Werkstätte. Thanks to the latter, Schiele soon became a member of the Vienna Secession, an Austrian art movement.

The first Schiele's exhibition took place at Klosterneuburg, Austria, in 1908. A year later, the painter founded the New Art Group (Neukunstgruppe) with other dismissed from the Academy of Fine Arts students, including Anton Peschka, Anton Faistauer, Hans Böhler, Erwin Osen, Franz Wiegele, and Robin Christian Andersen.

The same year, the works of Egon Schiele were exhibited at Vienna art Gallery, Kunstschau, along with the paintings of Edvard Munch, Jan Toorop, and Vincent van Gogh. Schiele started to explore the human form and human sexuality and elaborated his individual style characterized by the usage of sickly-coloured figures with figurative distortions. His most significant work of this time was Kneeling Nude with Raised Hands (1910).

The following years, Schiele took part in other exhibitions, including Neukunstgruppe in Prague (1910), Budapest (1912), Cologne (1912), and Secessionist shows in Munich. In about 1912, the painter moved to Neulengbach, Austria where he had a studio. The same year, Schiele was imprisoned for entice a young girl below the age of consent into sexual activity. Under arrest, the artist painted a series of 12 paintings depicting the troubles of a jail cell.

The first solo show of Schiele was organized in the Galerie Hans Goltz in 1913. A year later, he had one more show in Paris.

During the World War I, Schiele was firstly charged to guard and escort Russian prisoners which he painted (the artist even had a studio), but soon he was made a clerk in a POW camp because of some health problems. Despite the war, the artist continued his painting activity. At this period, Schiele started to show motherhood and family on his paintings with his wife Edith as the main model.

After the war, Egon Schiele participated in the Secession's 49th exhibition in Vienna where 50 of his works were presented. Besides, Schiele drew a poster for the exhibition similar to the 'Last Supper,' with a self-portrait in the place of Christ. The show brought the painter a great popularity.

At the end of his life, Schiele created some architectural and natural paintings.

Achievements

• Despite his brief career, Egon Schiele was a prolific painter whose style influenced such future artists, as Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon.
  
  The most part of Schiele's works, over 200 exhibits, are preserved at The Leopold Museum in Vienna. In 2011, the artist's painting Houses With Colorful Laundry (Suburb II) was sold for $40.1 million at Sotheby's. Schiele's artworks can also be seen at the Egon Schiele-Museum, Tulln, the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, and the Albertina Graphic Collection, both in Vienna.
  
  Schiele's personality and his scandalous lifestyle inspired many artists in different art fields. In 1980, the biographical movie by Herbert Vesely, Excess and Punishment, was released. The same year, the Arts Council of Great Britain produced a documentary, Schiele in Prison. Egon Schiele was the main character of several writings as well, including a novel Arrogance (1990) by Joanna Scott, an essay on portraiture "Borrowed Dogs" by a fashion photographer Richard Avedon, a novel The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto (1997) by Mario Vargas Llosa, a play Tatjana in Color (1999) by Julia Jordan, and The opening chapter's of Guy Mankowski's novel "An Honest Deceit."
  
  In May 1995, Stephan Mazurek produced a theatrical dance named Egon Schiele. Two years later, a choreographer Lea Anderson created The Featherstonehaughs Draw on The Sketchbooks of Egon Schiele for The Featherstonehaughs contemporary dance company.
  
  A picture by Rich Pellegrino shown in the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel was inspired in style by Schiele.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • City on the Blue River

  • Triple Self-portrait

  • Self-portrait with Arm Twisting above Head

  • Self-portrait, Facing Right

  • Seated Male Nude, Right Hand Outstretched

  • Winding Brook

  • Autumn Trees

  • Portrait of a Woman

  • Trees Mirrored in a Pond

  • Boy in a Sailor Suit

  • Seated Male Nude (Self-portrait)

  • Krumau

  • House with a Bay Window in the Garden

  • Sunflower

  • Autumn Tree in Movement

  • Woman in Black Stockings

  • Design for a Postcard

  • Sailing Ship with Dinghy

  • Kneeling Semi-Nude

  • I Love Antitheses

  • Portrait of Madame Dr. Horak

  • Silhouette of Klosterneuburg

  • Portrait of Valerie Neuzil

  • Standing Woman in Red

  • Deuring Castle, Bregenz

  • Pregnant Woman and Death

  • Old Brick House in Carinthia

  • Agony

  • Village by the River

  • Poldi Lodzinsky

  • Woman with Black Hat

  • Two Friends

  • The Self Seers (Death and Man)

  • Female Nude

  • Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer

  • Seated Woman

  • Reclining Girl on a Pillow

  • Portrait of the Composer Arthur Lowenstein

  • The Blind

  • Self-portrait

  • Standing Woman

  • Self-portrait with Hand to Cheek

  • Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek, Standing

  • Mother and Child (Madonna)

  • Two Seated Girls

  • The Truth was Revealed

  • Two Guttersnipes

  • Self-portrait with Black Vase and Spread Fingers

  • Crouching Figure (Valerie Neuzil)

  • Seated Young Girl

  • Village with Mountains

  • Setting Sun

  • Trieste Fishing Boat

  • Standing Female Nude in a Blue Robe

  • Prophets (Double Self-portrait)

  • Autumn Sun

  • Reclining Semi Nude with Red Hat

  • Reclining Female Nude

  • Composition with Three Male Figures (Self-portrait)

  • The Sleeping Girl

  • Standing Male Nude

  • Self-portrait with Chinese Lantern Fruits

  • Portrait of Miss Waerndorfer

  • Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek

  • Two Little Girls

  • Sunflower

  • Self-portrait

  • Houses on the Moldau, Krumau

  • Self-portrait as Prisoner

  • Sunflowers

  • Standing Girl in a Blue Dress and Green Stockings, Back View

  • Female Model in Bright Red Jacket and Pants

  • Krumau on the Molde, The Small City

  • Procession

  • Old Houses in Krumau

  • Sawmill

  • Study of Hands

  • Danae

  • Portrait of Eduard Kosmack with Raised Left Hand

  • Standing Male Nude, Back View

  • The Artist's Sister, Melanie

  • Girl in Black

  • Portrait of the Painter Max Oppenheimer

  • Winter Trees

  • Two Girls

  • Kneeling Young Man

  • Melon

  • Girl in Blue Dress

  • Town on the Blue River

  • Krumau on the Molde

  • Girl in Black Pinafore, Wrapped in Plaid blanket

  • Portrait of Gerti Schiele

  • Portrait of a Woman with Black Hair

  • Peasant Homestead in a Landscape

  • Self-portrait

  • River Landscape

  • Man Bencind Down Deeply

  • Self-portrait with Raised Arms, Back View

  • Self-portrait with Hands on Chest

  • Houses with Laundry (Seeburg)

  • Seated Girl Facing Front

  • Reclining Woman with Blonde Hair

  • Standing Figure with Halo

  • Semi-nude with Colored Skirt and Raised Arms

  • Landscape in Lower Austria

  • Arthur Roessler

  • Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek, in Profile Facing Left

  • The Daydreamer (Gerti Schiele)

  • Blind Mother

  • The Holy Family

  • Girl with Hood

  • Fuchsia

  • Self-portrait with Brown Background

  • Man with Blue Headband and Hand on Cheek

  • View into the Apartment of Leopold and Marie Czihaczek

  • Woman with Blue Stockings

  • View from the Drawing Classroom, Klosterneuburg

  • Forest with Sunlit Clearing in the Background

  • Reclining Woman with Red Blouse

  • Boy with Hand to Face

  • Stein on the Danube

  • Self-portrait Nude

  • Two Girls on a Fringed Blanket

  • Female Torso, Squatting

  • Male Nude

  • Double Portrait (Chief Inspector Heinrich Benesch and His Son Otto)

  • Clothed Woman, Reclining

  • Church in Stein on the Danube

  • Seated Girl

  • Bare Tree behind a Fence

  • Willy Lidl

  • Study for Danae

  • Water Sprites

  • Schiele's Room in Neulengbach

  • The Artist's Mother, Sleeping

  • Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka

  • Two Kneeling Figures (Parallelogram)

  • Dead City (City on the Blue River)

  • Autumn Tree with Fuchsias

  • Two Female Nudes, One Reclining, One Kneeling

  • Self-portrait

  • The Brother

  • Woman with Black Stockings

  • Self-portrait with Outstretched Arms

  • Portrait of Erich Lederer

  • Little Tree (Chestnut Tree at Lake Constance)

  • Lovers Man and Woman

  • Sunflowers

  • Sleeping Child

  • Houses by the River (The Old City)

  • Stein on the Danube, Seen from the Kreuzberg

  • Upright Standing Woman

  • Boating

  • The Bridge

  • The Dancer Moa

  • On the Beach, Moonlight

  • Self-portrait with Spread Fingers

  • Wally with a Red Blouse

  • Cardinal and Nun (Caress)

  • Child in Black

  • Field of Flowers

  • Sailing Boat with Reflection in the Water

  • Self-portrait

  • Meadow with Village in Background

  • Standing Girl in a Plaid Garment

  • Sitting Woman in a Green Blouse

  • House Between Trees I

  • Harbor of Trieste

  • The Scornful Woman

  • Mother and Child

  • Seated Girl with Raised Left Leg

  • Fighter

  • Conversion

  • Female Nude

  • Moa

  • A Tree in Late Autumn

  • Portrait of a Woman with Blue and Green Scarf

  • The Small City (Dead City)

  • Standing Nude with Large Hat (Gertrude Schiele)

  • Meadow, Church and Houses

  • Houses on the Town Square in Klosterneuberg

  • Portrait of Eduard Kosmack, Frontal, with Clasped Hands

  • Three Girls

  • Rufer

  • Portrait of the Publisher Eduard Kosmack

  • Hermits

  • Girl with Green Pinafore

  • Hindering the Artist is a Crime, it is Murdering Life in the Bud

  • Portrait of Karl Zakovsek

  • Stein on the Danube, Seen from the South

  • Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek (Head of a Bearded Man I)

  • Girl in a Blue Apron

  • Portrait of a Man with a Floppy Hat (Portrait of Erwin Dominilk Osen)

  • Two Boys

  • Woman with Long Hair

  • Field Landscape (Kreuzberg near Krumau)

  • Dead Mother

  • Seated Girl with Bare Torso and Light Blue Skirt

  • Seated Woman with Bent Knee

  • Self-portrait with Physalis

  • Lovers (Self-portrait with Wally)

  • Nude Self-portrait, Grimacing

  • Two Women

  • Lying Woman

  • Nude

  • Death and the Maiden

  • Town among Greenery

Views

Quotations: "Art cannot be modern. Art is primordially eternal."

"I must see new things and investigate them. I want to taste dark water and see crackling trees and wild winds."

"I was in love with everything – I wanted to look with love at the angry people so that their eyes would be forced to respond; and I wanted to bring gifts to the envious and tell them that I am worthless."

"No erotic work of art is filth if it is artistically significant; it is only turned into filth through the beholder if he is filthy."

"Bodies have their own light which they consume to live: they burn, they are not lit from the outside."

"I do not deny that I have made drawings and watercolors of an erotic nature. But they are always works of art. Are there no artists who have done erotic pictures?"

"I must live in my own excrement, breathe in my own poisonous sticky fumes. Yet I am a human being! I still am. Does no one think of that?"

Membership

Schiele was a member of the Vienna Secession, Austria.

• Vienna Secession , Austria

Connections

Egon Schiele had a relationship with Walburga Neuzil from 1911.

On June 17, 1915, he married Edith Harms. Three years later, 6 months pregnant Edith died of the Spanish flu.

Father:

Adolf Schiele

Mother:

Marie Schiele

Spouse:

Edith Harms

Partner:

Walburga Neuzil

She was also known as Wally.

Uncle:

Leopold Czihaczek

Sister:

Gertrude Schiele

Grandfather:

Karl Ludwig Schiele

grandmother:

Alosia Schimak

Grandfather:

Johann Franz Soukup

grandmother:

Aloisia Poferl

tutor:

Ludwig Karl Strauch

teacher:

Christian Griepenkerl

mentor:

Gustav Klimt

References

• Egon Schiele: His Life and Death The story of the artistic genius who provoked early 20th-century tolerance.
  2017
• Egon Schiele's Women In this elegant and beautifully illustrated book, Jane Kallir examines Schiele's depictions of women to argue that there is more to these images than we realize.
  2012
• Egon Schiele: Drawing the World Providing a clear picture of Schiele's stylistic development over the decades, the book reveals his great, overarching theme: human beings' existential loneliness.
  2017
• Egon Schiele: Almost a Lifetime Christian Bauer sheds new light on how Schiele developed the essential elements of his creative practice, in Tulln and Vienna, but also Krems, Klosterneuburg, Neulengbach, and Mühling, where the artist was put to work in a POW camp and painted a number of imprisoned Russian officers.
  2015
• Egon Schiele: Eros and Passion The book focuses on Schiele's preoccupation with Eros, sexuality, and death that pervaded his entire oeuvre, his insatiable curiosity and new developments in erotic and psychiatric photography.
  1999
• Egon Schiele: His Palette With his signature graphic style, embrace of figural distortion, and bold defiance of conventional norms of beauty, Egon Schiele was one of the leading figures of Austrian Expressionism.
  2016
• Egon Schiele: The Egoist The book delves into both his controversial sexual themes and neglected aspects of Schiele's art, notably his formal experiments and his later expressionistic portraits and allegorical paintings, works that reveal much about the importance of his short career.
  2006
• Schiele in Prison A book by Alessandra Comini.
  1973