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Egon Schiele: Life and Work

Egon Schiele ranks with Gustav Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka among the most influential painters to emerge from the cultural ferment that characterized Vienna at the turn of the century. Yet despite the appreciation of his art, the "real" Egon Schiele has remained elusive — like Vincent Van Gogh and Edvard Munch, precursors of Expressionism with whom he has often been mired in the myth of the tortured artist. His imprisonment on morals charges and his premature death, at the age of twenty-eight in 1918, have tended to dominate accounts of his life.

Jane Kallir, author also of Egon Schiele: The Complete Works (which includes a catalogue raisonne) and Abrams' volume Gustav Klimt, is co-director of the Galerie St. Etienne in New York. She bases her biography chiefly on first-hand sources, many of them previously unpublished. She offers new insights into Schiele's brief and sometimes troubled life: his childhood and early adulthood, his turbulent encounters with Vienna's patron class, his clashes with the Establishment — the notorious "prison incident" and his military service during World War I, his sexual escapades, and his ultimately disappointing marriage.

Interwoven with the story of the artist's life, Kallir unfolds a balanced presentation of his art — the mature and relatively placid pieces together with the turbulent Expressionist ones. Lavishly illustrated in color and duotone, this volume offers the reader text and pictures of the highest quality.

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 256
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780810946149
  • Genres
  • art
  • Release date
  • 2003