Original paintings & sculptures

Along with Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele is one of the most important visual artists of Viennese Modernism. Schiele quickly developed his unmistakable expressive formal language during his time at the Vienna Art Academy. Taking Art Nouveau as his point of departure, he combined ornamental structuring with broken lines and expressive coloration.

Egon Schiele was born in Tulln in 1890 in simple circumstances. Schiele passed the demanding entrance examination at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1906. However, he left after only three years due to fierce controversies with his professor Griepenkerl, who rejected every innovation in art. In 1909 Schiele founded the Neukunstgruppe together with young artists like Anton Faistauer and Franz Wiegele.

Schiele's portraits, figure paintings and landscapes often move in the thematic area of tension between love, eroticism, loneliness, life and death. The motif of becoming and passing away is a recurring theme.

In 1912 Schiele moved to Neulengbach, where a very productive creative period began. This came to a very sudden end with the "Neulengbach affair" - Schiele was accused of spreading immoral drawings and seducing a minor. After numerous exhibitions and journeys, the year 1914 marked the next turning point in Schiele's life. Schiele separated from his long-time companion Wally Neuziel to marry Edith Harms. Schiele's work, with its broken tones and hard contours, shaped the formal language of early Expressionism.