TVM Basement: 20th C. Pre WW-I European Art - Egon Schiele (Part 1 of 3)

part 2 of Egon Schiele
part 3 of Egon Schiele
pre WW I
20th Century European Art

European Art
before World War I

Egon Schiele

(Part 1 of 3)

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Egon Schiele

shiele

born: Tulln on the Danube, Austria; 12 June 1890
died: Vienna, Austria; 31 October 1918 of influenza

As a student at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (1907-09), Schiele was strongly influenced by the Jugendstil movement, the name for the German Art Nouveau. He met Gustav Klimt, leader of the Vienna Sezession, and the linearity and subtlety of Schiele's work owe much to Klimt's style. Schiele, however, emphasized expression over decoration, heightening the emotive power of line with a feverish tension. He eventually concentrated on the human figure, and his candid, agitated treatment of erotic and lesbian themes caused a sensation.

In 1909 he helped found the New Art Group. From 1911 on he exhibited throughout Europe, and a special room was devoted to his work at a 1918 Sezessionist exhibit in Vienna.

He died at 28 in the influenza epidemic of 1918. His pictures show one root of the German expressionist art of the post World War I period.

Extended Chronology with Pictures

1890		Born to Marie and Adolf Schiele; the third of four children. His father was the railway station master in Tulln.
1896	6	Egon goes to school in Tulln, and later to grammar school in Krems. Not a good academic student, but shows a marked talent for drawing.
1897	7	Gustav Klimt founds the Vienna Sezession an eclectic group of artists that attempt to unify the practical and the fine arts.
1902	12	The Schiele family moves to near by Klosterneuburg. Egon continues grammar school there. Egon's father is pensioned off because of mental instability that is probabily caused by untreated syphilis, for which there was no known cure.
1905	15	Egon's father dies on 1 January leaving the family penniless. Egon begins drawing and painting in earnest. He does a large number of paintings, including several self-portraits. His uncle, Leopold Czihaczek, who is a railway official, becomes Egon's guardian.
1906	16	Failing in the Klosterneuburg Gymnasium he is asked to withdraw. Egon takes the difficult Vienna Academy of Fine Arts entrance exam and is admitted. The family moves to Vienna. He enrolls in Christian Griepenkerl's painting class. Griepenkerl is a traditionalist; Schiele is interested in contemporary art. The climate in the painting class is a bit hostile.
1907	17	Schiele meets Gustav Klimt. They remain friends till the Klimt's death in 1918. Egon gets his own flat in Vienna (6 Kurzbauergasse). He and his sister Gerti visit Trieste.
1908	18	Egon has his first showing in a public exhibition at Klosterneuburg.
1909	19	With his fellow artists Anton Peschka, Anton Faistauer, Franz Wiegele, Hans Massmann, Karl Zakovsek and others he helps start the Neukunstgruppe (New Art Group). They issued a letter of protest against Christian Gripenkerl, the painting instructor. After three and a half years of art education, at the age of 18, Schiele with the rest of the Neukunstgruppe are forced to leave the Academy. Paris von Gütersloh and Hans Bohler join the group later. In the winter the Neukunstgruppe holds its first exhibit at the Salon Pisko, and Egon does his first work for the Wiener Werkstätte and meets its director Josef Hoffmann.

Self at 16
1906

Self Facing Right
1907
Private Collection

Apartment of
Leopold and Marie
Czihaczek
1907
Österreichische Galerie
Vienna, Austria

Harbor of Trieste
1907
Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum
Joanneum, Graz, Austria

Lower Austria
1907
Private Collection

Village with Mountains
1907
Private Collection

Autumn Tree
1908
Private Collection

Standing Girl
in Plaid Dress
1908/09
Institute of Art
Minneapolis, In, US

Sunflower II
1909
Historisches Museum
Vienna, Austria


1910	20	The Pisko exhibition provides an opening into Vienna art circles. Egon meets art critic Arthur Roessler; he in turn introduces him to the art publisher Eduard Kosmack. Egon exhibits a mural with Klimt's group. Schiele gets the support of Klimt and the Wiener Werkstätte for his expressionist murals. Later that year, Schiele paints large-format portraits of Roessler, Reichel, Kosmack and others, including the Viennese architect Otto Wagner. Egon writes his first poems and begins to pursue the theme of drawing nudes.

	View of Krumau 1910
Eduard Kosmak 1910		Karl Zakovsek 1910
Reclining Male Nude 1910 Private Collection	Seated Female Nude with Raised Right Arm 1910 Historisches Museum Vienna, Austria	Standing Male Nude from the Back 1910
Seated Male Nude 1910 Private Collection	Seated Male Nude 1910 Private Collection	Seated Male Nude Self-portrait 1910 Sammlung Rudolf Leopold Vienna, Austria
Seated Nude with Lilac Stockings 1910	Newborn Baby 1910 Private Collection	Standing Male Nude Self-portrait 1910