Table of contentsWho is Egon Schiele?Portrait of Gerti SchieleDead mother IFemale NudeSelf-portrait with PhysalisDeath and the girlEdith SchieleWho is Egon Schiele?Every generation has its punks. Whether musicians, writers or artists, these individuals ahead of their time – although infamous during their lives – create a legacy that endures years after their deaths. The Austrian painter Egon Schiele is certainly one of these controversial and memorable figures. Best identified as a 20th-century Expressionist painter, the short-lived artist's explicit female nudes, distinctive style, and controversial biography mark him as a brief but brilliant influence on the Expressionist movement. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Although his experimental self-portraits are certainly notable, Schiele is best known for his sexually provocative female nudes. A prolific artist, Schiele generally painted in gouache, oils and watercolors. Many of his ink, pencil and pencil drawings also survive today. The artist has worked on wood and paper, as well as multiple mediums, often painting over already completed drawings. But the most distinctive and famous of all is Schiele's unique style, which can only be described as grotesque. His violent brushstrokes, elongated figures, and intentionally disorienting foreshortenings make his work as distinct as it is horrific. Schiele was born on June 12, 1890 to Adolf Schiele and Marie Soukupova. Schiele's family lived in Tulln, Austria, where his father worked as a station master at the town's railway station. The young artist was drawn to trains and drew them so obsessively that his father, at one point, felt compelled to destroy his sketchbooks (Davies, “A Legend Laid Bare”). Many of his brothers and sisters died tragically young; her mother not only had to deal with the death of a daughter at birth and a stillborn son, but also lost her eldest daughter, Elvira, at the age of ten to illness infantile. Schiele still had two sisters; Mélanie, older, and Gertrude, four years younger. Historians are especially attracted to the artist's relationship with his younger sister, Gertrude, for whom he displays incestuous tendencies (Lucie-Smith, Lives). "Gerti" was often the subject of many of Schiele's female nudes and is considered his first model. Gerti would later marry Anton Peschka, a fellow painter and friend of Schiele (Steiner, Egon Schiele). When Schiele was fifteen, his father died of syphilis and he was made a ward of his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec. Recognizing his artistic talent, his uncle enrolled him at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule) in 1906. This is the same school from which Gustav Klimt – who would later take Schiele under his wing as his protégé – graduated in 1883.Schiele However, at the insistence of his teachers, he transferred during the year to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der Bildenden Kunste). Frustrated by the conservatism of his new school, Schiele left it after three years and established the "New Art Group" with like-minded students in 1909, writing a manifesto condemning the Academy's principles and exhibiting his works by independently at Kunstsalon Pisko (Artbios). The studies are Schiele's private teaching with the famous Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt, known for mentoring promising artists. Schiele sought him out in 1907; Klimt, recognizing the young man's talent, took a particular interest in Schiele, exhibiting his work andproviding models to his new student. Klimt played an essential role in Schiele's artistic growth, exposing the young painter not only to his own work, but also to that of Van Gogh, Georges Minne and Ferdinand Hodler (Artbios), whose influences are often visible in the style distinctive of Schiele. Free to neglect the stifling ideals of his former educators, Schiele began to explore death, sexuality, and the human form more deeply in explicit and often offensive detail. Schiele, now 21, met and fell in love with 17-year-old Valérie "Wally" Neuzil in 1911. Wally, who had initially posed for Klimt, soon became the inspiration and subject of a most of Schiele's works. work. The young couple soon settled in Krumau, Bohemia, where Schiele's mother (Steiner, Egon Schiele) grew up. Although the young couple's cohabitation caused little controversy in Vienna, they were condemned in the small town not only because of their lifestyle, but also because of Schiele's habit of using young teenage girls from the city as models, often outside and in plain sight (Davies, “A Legend Laid Bare”). Schiele and Wally instead settled in Neulengbach, Austria, where the artist was able to open a studio in 1912. The couple's residence quickly became a refuge for young delinquents (Artbios). Neulengbach was just as disapproving of Schiele's conduct as Krumau, denouncing his penchant for young girls (Steiner, Egon Schiele) and his exposure of explicit art to the city's youth. In April 1912, Schiele was accused of rape, arrested, and placed in prison for about a month (Davies, “A Legend Laid Bare”). At the time of his arrest, more than a hundred drawings considered pornographic were seized and a magistrate went so far as to burn one of the pieces (Lucie-Smith, Lives). Wally and Schiele returned to Vienna shortly after the artist's arrest. release. In 1914, the wealthy Harms family moved in across the street from them; Schiele quickly fell in love with their two daughters, Edith and Adele. Desiring a socially acceptable marriage, the artist decides to marry his younger sister, Edith, despite his parents' disapproval. Although Edith demanded monogamy (Davies, "A Legend Laid Bare"), Schiele also intended to remain romantically involved with Wally. When Schiele described the situation to Wally, she immediately left him, never to be seen by the artist again. With World War I approaching and Schiele's conscription, Edith and Schiele rushed to marry in June 1915. Schiele reported for duty just four days later. their marriage, although he never saw combat (Artbios). The artist was stationed in Prague guarding Russian prisoners of war and was able to continue painting and drawing while seeing Edith regularly. Both were back in Vienna in 1917, and although World War I had caused them little hardship, the Spanish flu would soon claim their lives. Edith, then six months pregnant, contracted the disease and died on October 28, 1918. Schiele made a handful of sketches of Edith before dying three days later, on October 31, 1918, at the age of 28. The controversial and tumultuous nature of Schiele's life is visible in his work. Schiele's bizarre exaggeration of anatomy and sickly color choices are complemented well by his expert use of line and composition, employing inventive new perspectives from which to paint his subjects to further develop the disconcerting atmosphere of his paintings. His enthusiastic experiments on the subjects of death and sexuality, although condemned during his shortlife, today make his works a famous contribution to the history of art. Schiele's avant-garde approach to art precedes similar principles of modern art. His unique distortions of anatomy and almost violent application of paint are reflected in the work of many Neo-Expressionist artists, such as Lubomir Tkacik and Francis Bacon, and the brutal, unabashed sexuality of his paintings is shared with painters of the 20th century like Jean-Michel Basquait and Keith Harring. Schiele's prolific and well-documented contributions to his movement make him a cornerstone of 20th-century expressionism. As short-lived as it may have been, he leaves behind the raw sexuality and bold defiance of his work, and while his work may have been the cause of controversy in its day, it is cherished by artists today , historians and aesthetes. After all, we were all punks once.Portrait by Gerti SchieleThe artist's sister sits with her feet dangling in space. She turns away from the viewer to smile inwardly, her eyes closed. There is no background, the negative space around her forcing her form to become the sole focal point. Although the rendering is relatively flat, Schiele suggests planar changes with his deliberate line work and coloring. The unusual cropping of the image, along with its unnaturally golden tones, make it a unique work of art. At this time, Schiele had been working closely with the famous Art Nouveau artist Gustav Klimt for about two years. The influence of Klimt's unique style is undeniable. Schiele's flat rendering and elongated figure alone are comparable to the older artist's style. However, even more influential are the distinct golden tones and intricate patterns that Schiele uses to adorn his subject matter. This is not to say that Schiele directly copies Klimt's work; her mentor generally did not let his figures float in space as Schiele almost always did, and Gerti's clothing, although simplified to only a few shapes, works with her body to emphasize form. Klimt, by comparison, dwarfed his characters in brightly patterned robes, often hiding everything except their faces and hands. Schiele also uses a more subtle silver color palette than his mentor's sparkling gold compositions. Schiele was incredibly close to his sister – many would say too close. Gerti was not only one of his dearest childhood friends, but she was also his first model. Schiele's love for Gerti is clearly visible in this painting. She is depicted as a beautiful golden figure, slender and lovely. A shy and charming smile illuminates his idealized face, despite Schiele's tendency to exaggerate the features of his models to the point of caricature. There is nothing else in the composition because there is nothing else important for Schiele to render; the focus is only on the figure placed in the center. Here we see none of the grotesque exaggerations of anatomy for which Schiele was famous. Instead, we see an undeniably charming young woman, smiling to herself in a small moment of happiness. Dead Mother ITwo distorted and disturbing figures wrap around each other in a canvas full of black, indescribable brushstrokes. A frail, corpse-like woman wraps her arms around and rests her head on what can only be described as a stomach, although indescribably it does not appear to be attached to her. She glances nonchalantly toward the center of the canvas, where a fetal form swells and contorts from a too-narrow window of space. Two hands, apparently too big for the characterto which they must belong, floating nearby without any indication of wrist or arm. The gruesome figure almost seems to be smiling, almost but not quite looking at the viewer. The almost violent brushstrokes and grossly exaggerated figures mark this piece as a distinctly expressionist piece. Gerti's delicate patterns and flat, graphic rendering are nowhere to be found, and Klimt's influence on Schiele, although still visible through a similar distortion of forms, has been put aside in favor of the exploration of individual style. Some might argue that the thick paint applied may have been inspired by the work of Van Gogh, whose sunflower series Schiele had often paid homage to. However, the short, almost pointillist way in which Van Gogh often used his painting was replaced by deliberately long, linear strokes. Dead Mother is full of meaning and deliberate choices. The fetus that Schiele depicts is, gruesome as it is, distinctly alive. Unlike everything else in the composition, this central form is painted in bright reds and oranges. You could almost see the blood flowing through its small body, contrasting with the dull greenish-black tones achieved throughout the rest of the room. The womb is surrounded by the mother on all sides; she places her head on him and looks at him, without emotion; a skeletal hand rises to support it from below, and its thin shoulders and dull hair surround the fetus from left to right. What did Schiele want to do with this macabre piece? He was surely inspired by the many tragedies his family faced when it came to babies and children: his family lost a sister when she was a child, another at birth, and his mother even delivered a stillborn boy at one point. Although its inspiration is clear, what was the interpretation? Is the contorted fetus an innocent form trapped by a cold and uncaring mother, or is it sucking the life out of her? He literally appears to have blood on his hands. Dead Mother I belongs to a series that Schiele worked on throughout his career, beginning with his striking Madonna and Child from 1908. Schiele painted multiple disturbing images of young children or infants with their menacing or menacing looks. corpse-like mothers, with similar symbolism and themes. The personal significance for Schiele must certainly have been of great importance. Mystery surrounds this grotesque and fascinating painting, and the meaning can be found on a distinctly individual level. Like many of Schiele's works, this deeply personal work easily resonates with its audience, leaving it open to interpretation for years to come. Female Nude A woman lies on her back, looking at us from an otherwise blank canvas. The cropping of the image is strange, deliberately cutting off the woman's legs and forcing a very asymmetrical composition. Here, Schiele didn't even finish the figure. Her legs are cut off at the thighs and she has no arms, only the implication of a shoulder and a single gnarled hand, resting delicately against her ribcage. This does not mean that the drawing is incomplete. Schiele focuses beautifully on the subtle color and reflected light of his abdomen, demonstrating his draftsmanship with deliberate black lines, and suggests weight and emphasis by altering the quality of the lines. It highlights the figure with a bright white outline to distinguish it from the rest of the page. A remarkable detail is the way he follows the kinetic energy of the woman's hair, spread around her, using short radial strokes with his white paint. This piece is typicalfemale nudes by Schiele. At this time the artist was still studying under Klimt, who often experimented with figure drawing in a similar way and most likely provided him with the model. Like most of his character designs, there is blatant sexuality in this piece. The woman is reclined with an unusual perspective typical of Schiele. The pose forces the viewer to look at her body, her legs slightly spread and suggestive, her hips opening towards us. Her body, especially her breasts, is flushed with heat and she looks at her audience with confidence. There is an objectifying quality to the piece; Schiele depicted only his torso in semi-realistic detail, choosing to greatly simplify his features and completely ignore his limbs. Although his rendering of the female form is stunning, one can't help but think of a sculpted piece of meat. This drawing could even be considered tame compared to Schiele's other female nudes, which often focused more explicitly on their genitals. While the eroticism in Schiele's work is certainly why he struggled with public outcry and censorship throughout his career, it's nice to see his themes return repeatedly and to be able to bring his works in such finite categories.Self-portrait with PhysalisSchiele paints himself looking haughtily at the viewer, head tilted above and away from us and shoulders delicately inclined. Behind him is a mostly abstract background, with the orange plant on the left side forcing an even more asymmetrical composition. Swirling brushstrokes in varying color blotches of pale gray fill the rest of the canvas, and its sparse, delicate outlines help bring together the piece's various shapes. Although Schiele was often incredibly deliberate with his brushstrokes, there is something particularly wonderful about it. on how he uses his paint here. The mottled, muddy patches of color on his face are well balanced by the softer features of the background behind him. The angular, almost patterned shapes that Schiele depicts in the color of his shirt help bring life to an otherwise formless and uninteresting form. Without his nudes, Schiele would certainly be better known for his self-portraits. The artist has represented himself on numerous occasions and in different ways; sometimes as a graceful, plunging figure as in his seated male nude from 1910; others like a fool, or with a comically pinched grimace. That being said, Schiele's 1912 self-portrait adopts a pose and expression that is also typical of the artist. What is not typical, however, is the completeness of the image, including a full background and work with deliberately textured brushstrokes, very different from those of the artist. empty spaces are usually left around his characters. Although he works across the entire canvas, the emptiness of space normally found in his drawings on paper is found here, only the lanky form of the Physalis and the subtle whorls and tonal shifts of the gray paint breaking up the background. gives us a self-portrait that exudes confidence, practically preening itself from within the canvas. He looks at the audience mostly through his nose, but somehow manages to maintain an inquisitive air. We can't help but compare the pose and expression to that of a modern selfie, especially considering the youthful and curious vibe her image presents. As ahead of his time as he was, Schiele may have adapted to today's media and appearance-based culture. Girl. Two figures painted in mud.