Early life Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele was born on 12 June 1890 in
Tulln,
Lower Austria. His father, Adolf Schiele, the station master of the Tulln station in the
Austrian Federal Railways, was born in 1851 in
Vienna to Karl Ludwig Schiele, a German from
Ballenstedt and Aloisia Schimak; Egon's mother Marie () was born in 1861 in
Český Krumlov (Krumau) to Franz Soukup, a Czech father from
Mirkovice, and Aloisia Poferl, a
German Bohemian mother from Český Krumlov. Schiele had three sisters, Elvira, Melanie and Gertrude. Elvira died as a child of
congenital syphilis. Schiele's family life was however deeply influenced by his father's illness and as the syphilis
progressed it left him in a state of mental confusion and would oftentimes cast him into fits of rage. When he was 11 years old, Schiele moved to the nearby city of
Krems (and later to
Klosterneuburg) to attend secondary school. To those around him, Schiele was regarded as a strange child. Shy and reserved, he did poorly at school except in athletics and drawing, and was usually in classes made up of younger pupils. He also displayed a
sexual interest in his younger sister Gertrude (who was known as
Gerti), and his father once broke down the door of a locked room that Egon and Gerti were in to see what they were doing, only to discover them developing film. When he was sixteen, he took the twelve-year-old Gerti by train to
Trieste without permission and spent a night in a hotel room with her.
Academy of Fine Arts When Schiele was 14 years old, his father died from syphilis, and the family, which had been fairly wealthy, was left impoverished. Before his death, Schiele's father, in a fit of
insanity, had burned the railway stocks he owned, which would have helped out the family's economy. Schiele's elder sister, Melanie, became the family's sole breadwinner when she was hired as a ticket clerk at the local railway station. Schiele and his younger sister, Gerti, became wards of his uncle-in-law (by marriage to Schiele's paternal aunt, Maria), Leopold Czihaczek, also a railway official. Although he wanted Schiele to follow in his footsteps and was distressed at his lack of interest in academia, he recognised Schiele's talent for drawing and allowed him a tutor, the artist Ludwig Karl Strauch. Eventually, the uncle renounced his guardianship of Schiele, and Schiele became dependent on financial support from his mother to continue his art studies. This support was cut off due to his sister Melanie's objecting to the expense of it, and it caused a rift in the family. In 1906, Schiele applied to the
Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where
Gustav Klimt had once studied. During his studies at the school, he explored sculpture and created a number of small-scale clay and plaster sculptures. Within his first year there, Schiele was sent, at the insistence of several faculty members, to the more traditional
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () in Vienna in 1906. His main teacher at the academy was
Christian Griepenkerl, a painter whose strict doctrine and ultra-conservative style frustrated and dissatisfied Schiele so much that he left after three years.
Klimt and first exhibitions '', 1910 In 1907, Schiele sought out Gustav Klimt, who generously mentored younger artists. Klimt took a particular interest in the young Schiele, buying his drawings, offering to exchange them for some of his own, arranging models for him, and introducing him to potential patrons. He also introduced Schiele to the
Wiener Werkstätte, the arts and crafts workshop connected with the
Vienna Secession. Schiele's earliest works between 1907 and 1909 contain strong similarities with those of Klimt, as well as influences from
Art Nouveau. In 1908, Schiele had his first exhibition, in
Klosterneuburg. Schiele left the academy in 1909, after completing his third year, and founded the
Neukunstgruppe ("New Art Group") with other dissatisfied students. In his early years, Schiele was strongly influenced by Klimt and
Oskar Kokoschka. Although imitations of their styles, particularly with the former, are noticeably visible in Schiele's first works, he soon evolved his own distinctive style. '' 1909 Klimt invited Schiele to exhibit some of his work at the 1909 Vienna
Kunstschau, where he encountered the work of
Edvard Munch,
Jan Toorop, and
Vincent van Gogh among others. Once free of the academy's constraints, Schiele began to explore not only the human form, but also sexuality. Schiele's work was already daring, but it went a bold step further with the inclusion of Klimt's decorative eroticism and figurative distortions. He also painted tributes to
Van Gogh's
Sunflowers as well as landscapes and still lifes. In 1910, Schiele began experimenting with nudes, and within a year, a definitive style featuring emaciated, sickly-coloured figures, often with strong sexual overtones, began to emerge. Schiele also began painting and drawing children. , 1914 Schiele began to participate in what would be numerous group exhibitions, including those of the Neukunstgruppe in Prague in 1910 and
Budapest in 1912; the
Sonderbund,
Cologne, in 1912; and several Secessionist shows in
Munich, beginning in 1911. In 1911, at the age of twenty-one, Schiele met the seventeen-year-old
Wally Neuzil, who lived with him in Vienna and served as a model for some of his most striking paintings. She had previously modelled for Klimt and might have been one of his mistresses. Schiele and Wally wanted to escape what they perceived as the claustrophobic Viennese milieu, and went to the small town of Krumau in southern
Bohemia. Krumau was the birthplace of Schiele's mother; today it is the site of a museum dedicated to Schiele. Despite Schiele's family connections in Krumau, he and his lover were driven out of the town by the residents, who strongly disapproved of their
bohemian lifestyle, including his alleged employment of the town's teenage girls as models. Progressively, Schiele's work grew more complex and thematic, and he eventually began dealing with themes such as death and rebirth.
Neulengbach and imprisonment Together, the couple moved to
Neulengbach, west of Vienna, seeking inspirational surroundings and an inexpensive studio in which to work. As had been the case in the capital, young people and teenagers gathered in Schiele's new studio in Neulengbach. Schiele's way of life aroused much animosity among the town's inhabitants, and in April 1912 he was arrested under suspicion of kidnapping and seducing a girl of 13. When the police came to his studio to place Schiele under arrest, they seized more than a hundred drawings which they considered pornographic. Schiele was imprisoned while awaiting his trial. When his case was brought before a judge, the charges were dropped, but the artist was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children. In court, the judge burned one of the drawings ("depicting a very young girl dressed only above the waist") over a candle flame. The 21 days he had already spent in custody were taken into account, and he was sentenced to a further three days' imprisonment. While in prison, Schiele created a series of paintings depicting his jail cell. In 1913, the Galerie
Hans Goltz, Munich, mounted Schiele's first solo show. A solo exhibition of his work took place in
Paris in 1914.
World War I In 1914, Schiele glimpsed the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms, who lived with their parents across the street from his studio in the Viennese district of
Hietzing, 101 Hietzinger Hauptstraße. They were a
middle-class family and
Protestant by faith; their father was a master
locksmith. In 1915, Schiele chose to marry the more socially acceptable Edith, but had apparently expected to continue his relationship with Wally. When he explained the situation to Wally, she left him immediately and never saw him again. This abandonment led him to paint
Death and the Maiden, where Wally's portrait is based on a previous pairing, but Schiele's is newly struck. In February 1915, Schiele wrote a note to his friend
Arthur Roessler stating: "I intend to get married, advantageously. Not to Wally." Despite some opposition from the Harms family, Schiele and Edith were married on 17 June 1915, the anniversary of the wedding of Schiele's parents. Although Schiele avoided conscription for almost a year,
World War I now began to shape his life and work. Three days after his wedding, Schiele was ordered to report for active service in the army, where he was initially stationed in
Prague. Edith came with him and stayed in a hotel in the city, while Egon lived in an exhibition hall with his fellow conscripts. They were allowed by Schiele's commanding officer to see each other occasionally. During the war, Schiele's paintings became larger and more detailed. His military service gave him limited time, and much of his output consisted of linear drawings of scenery and military officers. Around this time, Schiele also began experimenting with the themes of motherhood and family. His wife Edith was the model for most of his female figures, but during the war (due to circumstance) many of his sitters were male. From 1915, Schiele's female nudes became fuller in figure, and many were deliberately illustrated with a lifeless doll-like appearance. Despite his military service, Schiele was still exhibiting in Berlin. He also had successful shows in
Zürich,
Prague, and
Dresden. His first duties consisted of guarding and escorting Russian prisoners. Because of his weak heart and his excellent handwriting, Schiele was eventually given a job as a clerk in a
POW camp near the town of
Mühlingen. There, he was allowed to draw and paint imprisoned Russian officers; his commander,
Karl Moser (who assumed that Schiele was a painter and decorator when he first met him), even gave him a disused store room to use as a studio. Since Schiele was in charge of the food stores in the camp, he and Edith could enjoy food beyond rations. Schiele did everything he could to get out of military service. In January 1917, he was transferred to a military supply depot in
Vienna and given no particular responsibilities. He was again able to focus on his artistic career, and his output was prolific. His work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents. Schiele was invited to participate in the 49th
Vienna Secession exhibition held in 1918. Schiele had fifty works accepted for this exhibition, and they were displayed in the main hall. He also designed a poster for the exhibition. The composition was reminiscent of the
Last Supper, with a portrait of himself in the place of
Jesus. The show was a triumphant success. As a result, prices for Schiele's drawings increased, and he received many portrait commissions.
Death In the autumn of 1918, the
Spanish flu pandemic reached Vienna. Edith, who was six months pregnant, died from the disease on 28 October. Schiele, very sick and weak, was transferred from the couple's home to his in-laws' house. Due to fear of contagion, visitors would communicate with Schiele from afar by way of a mirror which was set up on the threshold of his room and the parlour. Among Schiele's last visitors were his mother Marie and sister Melanie. Schiele died three days after his wife. He was 28 years old. During the three days between their deaths, Schiele drew a few sketches of Edith. ==Style==