Biographical sketch
Egon Schiele is an important representative of the Klimt school of painting where grotesqueness and crudity come to the fore. He came from a humble background and was born in 1890, in the town of Tulln, that is situated in the state of Lower Austria. Since Schiele’s father worked with Austrian railways, the young Egon was fascinated with trains and began drawing at a feverish pace. Unfortunately, his father did not approve of his new hobby and tore up most of his sketchbooks thus making the artistic world lose a substantial body of early work by Schiele, since this would have shed new light on his artistic style and development.
The family moved to Klostenburg, and Egon continued to develop his artistic prowess although he was viewed as a strange and very shy child. The boy did not do very well academically but excelled in drawing and physical exercise. Schiele’s preoccupation with the female body began at an early age and he was also believed to have experimented sexually with his sister with her father catching them together a few times.
Schiele received his artistic break due to his father dying when he was just 15 years old, and his uncle recognized the boy’s immense artistic talent. Schiele started attending the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts where he came under the influence of Gustav Klimt, but eventually was sent to the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste also in Vienna where he was taught by Christian Griepenkerl, an ultra-conservative artist. Schiele rebelled against this style and eventually came under the influence of Klimt where he continued in the exploring of sexual fantasy and imagination.
After further schooling, Schiele met Edith Harms and married her. She was to provide the inspiration for most of his female nudes, and his work took on a distinctly more sexual turn after his marriage. Schiele ended up in prison on charges of indecent assault and also managed to avoid war service. The authorities confiscated several of his works, that were thought to be pornographic; undoubtedly Schiele’s brash and direct style was extremely shocking for Germany and Austria in 1915. His turbulent life came to an end in 1918 when he died three days after his wife; both had succumbed to the deadly Spanish Flu epidemic. Egon Schiele was only 28 years old.
Self portrait –egon schiele
This self-portrait by Schiele shows his preoccupation with sexual proclivity and the human body. The sexual parts are very prominent as is the hair on the body and the style is similar to Klimt and other artists of the period such as George Grosz. Schiele’s use of colouring is also extremely effective and the red blotches describing the lips and chest nipples are prominent as is the portrayal of the penis and the scrotum which are very detailed.
Seated Woman With Bent Knee by Egon Schiele
Schiele had a particular preoccupation with the female figure, and although this figure is clothed, the sexual mannerisms which are present are very direct and brash. The woman gazes at the viewer in a sultry manner and her tattered clothing also has sexual tendencies about it. She is also opening her legs and the shape of her vagina is prominently pressed against her shorts creating an erotic atmosphere. The eroticism of the painting is also comparable to Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ although the prominence of the sexual attire is not that direct.
Female nude by Egon Schiele
The female nude by Egon Schiele is one of his favourite poses. Here, there is an emphasis on the breasts and the pubic hair where the woman is lying with her legs spread apart, almost inviting a man to mount her. Again, one is reminded of Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ although the directness of this painting is very different from the former’s more exotically concocted work.
Female sketch by Gustav Klimt
This female sketch by Schiele focuses on the beauty of the female body especially the focus on the pubic hair and genital area. The woman’s face is shrouded in a scarf, again similar to Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ while there is also a study of the hand, which is treated as a separate subject. Schiele looks to be very much preoccupied with the drawing line, and the sketch is faithful to the human body.
Egon Schiele, Kardinal und Nonne (Cardinal et Religieuse/Cardinal and Nun), 1912. Huile sur toile, 70 x 80.5 cm
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
Schiele’s painting depicting the Cardinal in a voluptuous embrace is almost identical to Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’. Schiele takes a more daring approach to the pose since the Cardinal is groping a religious sister, something that could have been viewed as very shocking for its time. Schiele’s originality is in his daring use of religious themes with sexual connotations exploring the abundant hypocrisy in Austrian society in the last throes of the Hapsburg Empire.
female nude by Egon Schiele
Schiele’s innovation can easily be seen in the way he portrayed the female nude. The sexual and sultry poses of his models have to be analysed very well to be appreciated. His preoccupation with pubic hair, large breasts and vaginas is very prominent. In these two nudes, the woman is deformed adding to the shocking character of the work. However the disability is not seen as something that is ugly, rather it almost complements the intrinsic beauty of these two women.
Conclusion:
Although Schiele lived a very short life, his work is considered to be extremely important especially due to his advanced techniques in studying female nudes. His considerable experiences also influenced his painting style. Schiele’s incestual experiences and his marriage also enabled him to experiment with the female form whilst his influences centred around the work of Gustav Klimt whose painting, ‘The Kiss’ appears in several facets and forms in Schiele’s work. The latter’s arresting paintings of female nudes with pubic hair and genitals given prominence are also very important although they were deemed as being pornographic in Schiel’s time. Other artists who were in turn influenced by Schiele’s work were Vassily Kandinsky and Gregor Csziganyi who took the cubic tendency much farther although the latter was also influenced by Gaugin.
Works Cited:
Egon Schiele: The Complete Works Catalogue Raisonné of all paintings and drawings by Jane Kallir, 1990, Harry N. Abrams, New York, ISBN 0-8109-3802-2.
Egon Schiele: The Egoist (Egon Schiele: Narcisse échorché) by Jean-Louis Gaillemin; translated from the French by Liz Nash, 2006, ISBN 978-0-500-30121-0 & ISBN 0-500-30121-2.
Egon Schiele: Erotic, Grotesque and on Display. ARTINFO. 1 April 2005. Retrieved 2008-04-17
Bayzler, Michael J.; and Alford, Roger P. Holocaust restitution: perspectives on the litigation and its legacy, p. 281. NYU Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8147-9943-4. Accessed July 5, 2010.
Kennedy, Randy (20 July 2010). "Leopold Museum to Pay $19 Million for Painting Seized by Nazis". The New York Times.
