Egon Schiele

In 1911, Schiele came in contact with Walburga (Wally) Neuzil, a 17 year old model, for some of his paintings. He was introduced to him by Gustav Klimt. She is considered as Klimt’s mistress by many.

Both of them ran away from Vienna to the small town of Cesk� Krumlov in southern Bohemia but their outrageous lifestyle was vehemently disapproved by the people of the town - especially his employing of teenage girls as his models.

Facing resistance from people, the couple moved to Neulangbach and continued with their lifestyle. Schiele’s studio became famous for being a hangout point for the delinquent children of the town.

Egon Schiele was born in Tulln, Austria to Adolf and Marie Schiele. His father worked as a station master of the Tulln station in the Austrian State Railways and died of syphilis when Egon was only 15 years old.

Until 11, Schiele was fascinated by trains and used to sketch them. It infuriated his father and he burnt those sketches. He was not a very studious student and was only interested in athletics and drawing.

When his father died, his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec, became his official guardian. Schiele troubled him by not taking interest in academics but his uncle recognized his aptitude for drawing. After much resistance, he allowed him a tutor.

In 1906, Schiele started studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna, but within one year he was sent to Akademie der Bildenden K�nste for a more traditional learning. He got tired of the conservative style there and left within 3 years.

In 1907, Schiele met Gustav Klimt who took him under his wings, as he was famous for mentoring young artists. He was peculiarly interested in Schiele and bought his drawings, arranged models for him, etc.

The following year, Schiele managed to put up his first art exhibition in Klosterneuburg. He left his academy in Vienna in 1909 and started his own group the ‘Neukunstgruppe ("New Art Group")’ with the other discontented students.

In 1909, he got an invite from Klimt to exhibit some of his paintings at the Vienna Kunstschau. As he was no more obliged towards his academy, he started exploring the human form and human sexuality.

From 1910-14, Schiele started taking part in various exhibitions, like, Neukunstgruppe in Prague (1910), Budapest (1912), Cologne (1912), Secessionist shows in Munich and solo shows in the Galerie Hans Goltz (1913) and Paris (1914).

In 1912, Schiele was arrested for seducing a girl below the age of consent. He spent 24 days in prison and there he painted a series of 12 paintings portraying the distress of the prison life.

Schiele’s drawings and their scope grew with the experiences of his life. He started out with strong impressions of Klimt’s work, experimented with human sexuality by drawing nudes and then he moved to themes like death and rebirth after his imprisonment.

It was during the war and his involvement in it that highly influenced his work and gave his paintings the detailing it lacked before. Although, most of his models were military officers, Painting nude females still remained his personal favorites.