"Art cannot be modern, art is eternal." Egon Schiele.
Egon Schiele was born in Tulln, on the Danube, Austria on 12 June 1890. His mother said he had had a tenacious affinity with pencil and paper as young as 2years old, perhaps even younger. He was a quiet boy, and would sit all day at the window sketching everything, always solitary and reserved.
Young Schiele wasn't too good at school, and though his father, family, and mostly everyone else, expected him to work for the railway he applied to the Kunstgewerbeschule (the School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where Gustav Klimt had once studied. It is rumoured that there was some rivalry between this establishment and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste, and some at the Kunstgewerbeschule thought Schiele would become a troublesome pupil, and so sent him to the Akademie, arguing it was because he was so talented. The previous year Schiele's father had died of syphilis and had gone mad. The death deeply affected him, and his sister Gerti (Gertrude) said that "he went out into the fields and drew all day, what he did most when he was depressed. He shows his love in his own way."
Schiele became the ward of his uncle, Leopold Czihaczek, who didn't really appreciate visual art though he was fond of music. He did however permit Egon to go to art school, and though the young boy was not particularly attached to his uncle, he did often sketch portraits of him.
Schiele's early works don't show much of the character and energy of his later pieces, perhaps because of the restrictions he felt from the traditional teachings of the art schools. He, as others before him had, inevitably revolted against the system, and completed the 3 years minimum at the Akademie.
The Kiss By Klimt
Schiele met Gustav Klimt in 1906, perhaps 1907, most likely in the Museum Cafe where many artists could be found at the time. Klimt was impressed with the 16 year old and encouraged him, introducing him to agents and arranging models to sit for him.
By 1909 Schiele started to paint portraits. In his use of non-naturalistic colour and unusual angles, these portraits already highlight Schiele's unique vision, for example, 'Standing Female Nude with Crossed Arms' (1910). As well as Klimt, the influences of Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh can be seen in this early work. His career is best known for his remarkable nudes, but he also painted landscapes and allegorical works.
He was keen to give the impression of a poverty-stricken artist, although the photographs of him show him well-dressed. He had a profound arrogance, and a poster for one of his exhibitions showed a scene not dissimilar to The Last Supper, with himself as Christ.
He mostly drew/painted orphaned children, street urchins, prostitutes and the like, allowing them to inhabit his studio appartment and paying them small sums. He had a few relationships with his models, though perhaps the most memorable is his childhood infatuation with his younger sister Gerti, the most infamous story being when he, aged 16 and she 12, whisked her away to their parent's honeymoon destination to a hotel room, and his enraged father breaking down the door to find the two children taking photographs.
Gerti Schiele
In 1912 Schiele was briefly imprisoned charged with indecency due to the explicit nature of his paintings; he was held for 3 weeks, however he considered it a "Hindering the Artist Is a Crime, It Is Murdering Life In the Bud!", as he named one of his self-portraits, painted in watercolours while in jail.
In these paintings he depicted himself as a suffering, victimised prisoner, which perhaps emphasises his self-pity and self-obsession. In fact his self-portraits are particularly prolific, throughout his life; he was fascinated by himself, as a suffering being, a sexual being, but also using them to explore something deeper.
With the outbreak of the First World War, he was enlisted to serve in the Austrian Army and could not continue his painting whilst in military service.
He married Edith, a former model, and one of his last pieces, "The Family", shows Schiele in a more sensitive light, with less of the brutality and arrogance of his other works, perhaps suggesting the calmer, more accepting person he later became. Schiele died in the influenza epidemic of 1918, 3 days after his wife, at the age of only 28.
with help from http://articons.co.uk/schiele.htm http://www.handprint.com/HP/WCL/artist20.html
http://www.finesite.webart.ru/shocking/schiele-2.htm
http://www.leninimports.com/egon_schiele_bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egon_Schiele
