Schiele Case

Egon Schiele was born on June 12, 1890 in the city of Tulln, Austria. At age 15, after the death of father, his uncle took care of Schiele. His uncle recognized Schiele's talent and supported him to pursue art. At age 16, Schiele first went to Kunstgewerbeschule, an advanced school for applied art, in Vienna. However not long after he was there, he transferred to the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, or Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. There, he studied drawing and painting but felt confined by the school's conservative nature.

Schiele then sought after Gustav Klimt, an Austrian Symbolist Painter. Klimt encouraged Schiele by buying his drawings and providing him with opportunities to practice and showcase his artwork. Klimt invited Schiele to showcase his artwork at 1909 Vienna Kunstschau. There, Schiele encountered the works of Edvard Munch, a Norwegian Symbolist Painter. As his work began to flourish, Schiele began to explore the human form and sexuality with his work. His artwork both shocked and captured the public's interest.

In April 1912, Schiele was arrested for seducing young girl below age of consent. The charges were dropped shortly; however, he was imprisoned for exhibiting erotic drawings in place accessible to children. In his 24-day jail period, he created paintings depicting his emotions in prison. In 1918, Schiele exhibited more than 40 pieces of his work in Secession's 49th exhibition, where he gained great recognition. In the same year, he died of Spanish flu epidemic three days after his pregnant wife, Edith Harms.

The style of Schiele's work has been considered to be grotesque, erotic, pornographic, disturbing, and focusing on sex, death, and discovery. His artwork was mainly portraits of nude or semi-nude models as well as himself. He mainly used oil paintings on canvas, wood, and cardboard, gouaches, watercolors, and pen-and-ink and pencil drawings on paper. Rather than drawing classical poses, he prefers a style that has often been dismissed as "ugly."