Egon Schiele
Encyclopedia
Egon Schiele (ˈʃiːlə, approximately SHEE-leh; June 12, 1890 October 31, 1918) was an Austria
n painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt
, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism
.
. His father, Adolph Schiele, worked for the Austrian State Railways as a station master; his mother, Marie Soukup(ová), was from Krumau
, in Bohemia
. As a child, he attended the school run by the Stift Klosterneuburg
, where his arts teacher K.L. Strauch recognized and supported Schiele's artistic talent.
When Schiele was 15 years old, his father died from syphilis
, and he became a ward of his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec, who became distressed by Schiele's lack of interest in academic studies, yet recognized his passion and talent for art. In 1906 Schiele applied at the Kunstgewerbeschule
(School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna
, where Gustav Klimt
had once studied. Within his first year there, Schiele was sent, at the insistence of several faculty members, to the more traditional Akademie der Bildenden Künste
in Vienna in 1906. There, he studied painting and drawing, but was frustrated by the school’s conservatism.
, the arts and crafts workshop connected with the Secession
. In 1908 Schiele had his first exhibition, in Klosterneuburg
. Schiele left the Academy in 1909, after completing his third year, and founded the Neukunstgruppe ("New Art Group") with other dissatisfied students.
Klimt invited Schiele to exhibit some of his work at the 1909 Vienna Kunstschau, where he encountered the work of Edvard Munch
, Jan Toorop
, and Vincent van Gogh
among others. Once free of the constraints of the Academy's conventions, Schiele began to explore not only the human form, but also human sexuality. At the time, many found the explicitness of his works disturbing.
in southern Bohemia
. Krumau was the birthplace of Schiele's mother; today it is the site of a museum dedicated to Schiele. Despite Schiele's family connections in Krumau, he and his lover were driven out of the town by the residents, who strongly disapproved of their lifestyle, including his alleged employment of the town's teenage girls as models.
Together they moved to Neulengbach
, 35 km west of Vienna, seeking inspirational surroundings and an inexpensive studio in which to work. As it was in the capital, Schiele's studio became a gathering place for Neulengbach's delinquent children. Schiele's way of life aroused much animosity among the town's inhabitants, and in April 1912 he was arrested for seducing a young girl below the age of consent.
When they came to his studio to place him under arrest, the police seized more than a hundred drawings which they considered pornographic
. Schiele was imprisoned while awaiting his trial. When his case was brought before a judge, the charges of seduction and abduction were dropped, but the artist was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children. In court, the judge burned one of the offending drawings over a candle flame. The twenty-one days he had already spent in custody were taken into account, and he was sentenced to only three days' imprisonment. While in prison, Schiele created a series of 12 paintings depicting the difficulties and discomfort of being locked in a jail-cell.
In 1914, Schiele glimpsed the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms, who lived with their parents across the street from his studio in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing, 101 Hietzinger Hauptstrasse. They were a middle-class family and Protestant by faith; their father was a master locksmith. In 1915, Schiele chose to marry the more socially acceptable Edith, but had apparently expected to maintain a relationship with Wally. However, when he explained the situation to Wally, she left him immediately and never saw him again. This abandonment led him to paint Death and the Maiden, where Wally's portrait is based on a previous pairing, but Schiele's is newly struck. (In February 1915, Schiele wrote a note to his friend Arthur Roessler stating: "I intend to get married, advantageously. Not to Wally.") Despite some opposition from the Harms family, Schiele and Edith were married on 17 June 1915, the anniversary of the wedding of Schiele's parents.
now began to shape Schiele's life and work. Three days after his wedding, Schiele was ordered to report for active service in the army where he was initially stationed in Prague
. In the army, Schiele was treated well by officers who respected his artistic talent. He never saw any fighting at the front, and was able to continue painting and sketching while guarding Russian prisoners of war, and doing light guard duties. By 1917, he was back in Vienna, able to focus on his artistic career. His output was prolific, and his work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents. He was invited to participate in the Secession's 49th exhibition, held in Vienna in 1918. Schiele had fifty works accepted for this exhibition, and they were displayed in the main hall. He also designed a poster for the exhibition, which was reminiscent of the Last Supper
, with a portrait of himself in the place of Christ. The show was a triumphant success, and as a result, prices for Schiele's drawings increased and he received many portrait commissions.
During the same year, he also had successful shows in Zürich
, Prague
, and Dresden
.
Schiele participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those of the Neukunstgruppe in Prague in 1910 and Budapest
in 1912; the Sonderbund
, Cologne
, in 1912; and several Secessionist shows in Munich
, beginning in 1911. In 1913, the Galerie Hans Goltz
, Munich, mounted Schiele's first solo show. A solo exhibition of his work took place in Paris
in 1914.
In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu
epidemic that claimed more than 20,000,000 lives in Europe reached Vienna. Edith, who was six months pregnant, succumbed to the disease on 28 October. Schiele died only three days after his wife. He was 28 years old. During the three days between their deaths, Schiele drew a few sketches of Edith; these were his last works.
), a 1980 film originating in Germany with a European cast that explores Schiele's artistic demons leading up to his early death. The film is directed by Herbert Vesely
and stars Mathieu Carriere
as Schiele, Jane Birkin
as his early artistic muse, Christine Kaufman as his wife and Kristina Van Eyck as her sister. As well, his life was represented in a theatrical dance production by Stephan Mazurek called Egon Schiele, presented in May 1995, for which Rachel's
, an American
post-rock
group, composed a score titled Music for Egon Schiele
. For The Featherstonehaughs
contemporary dance company, Lea Anderson
choreographed The Featherstonehaughs Draw On The Sketchbooks Of Egon Schiele in 1997.
Schiele's life and work have also been the subject of essays, including a discussion of his works by fashion photographer Richard Avedon
in an essay on portraiture entitled "Borrowed Dogs." Mario Vargas Llosa
uses the work of Schiele as a conduit to seduce and morally exploit a main character in his 1997 novel The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto..
Portrait of Wally
, a 1912 portrait, was purchased by Rudolf Leopold
in 1954 and became part of the collection of the Leopold Museum
when it was established by the Austrian government, purchasing more than 5,000 pieces that Leopold had owned. After a 1997-1998 exhibit of Schiele's work at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York City
, the painting was seized by order of the New York County District Attorney
and had been tied up in litigation by heirs of its former owner who claim that the painting was Nazi plunder
and should be returned to them. The dispute was settled on July 20, 2010 and the picture subsequently purchased by the Leopold Museum
for 19 Million USD.
The Leopold Museum
, Vienna
houses perhaps Schiele's most important and complete collection of work, featuring over 200 exhibits. The museum sold one of these, “Houses With Colorful Laundry (Suburb II)”, for $40.1 million at Sotheby's in 2011. Other notable collections of Schiele's art include the Egon Schiele-Museum, Tulln and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
, Vienna.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
.
Early life
Schiele was born in Tulln on the DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. His father, Adolph Schiele, worked for the Austrian State Railways as a station master; his mother, Marie Soukup(ová), was from Krumau
Český Krumlov
Český Krumlov is a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, best known for the fine architecture and art of the historic old town and Český Krumlov Castle...
, in Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. As a child, he attended the school run by the Stift Klosterneuburg
Stift Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg Priory is a Roman Catholic monastery of Augustinian Canons in the Lower Austrian town of Klosterneuburg on the Danube river, just north of the Vienna city limits at the Leopoldsberg....
, where his arts teacher K.L. Strauch recognized and supported Schiele's artistic talent.
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
, and he became a ward of his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec, who became distressed by Schiele's lack of interest in academic studies, yet recognized his passion and talent for art. In 1906 Schiele applied at the Kunstgewerbeschule
Kunstgewerbeschule
A Kunstgewerbeschule was the old name for an advanced school of applied arts in German-speaking countries. The first such schools were opened in Kassel in 1867 and Berlin and Munich in 1868 with other German towns following. They are now merged into universities....
(School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, where Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
had once studied. Within his first year there, Schiele was sent, at the insistence of several faculty members, to the more traditional Akademie der Bildenden Künste
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna is an institution of higher education in Vienna, Austria.- History :The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy by the court-painter Peter Strudl, who became the Praefectus Academiae Nostrae. In 1701 he was ennobled as Baron of the Empire...
in Vienna in 1906. There, he studied painting and drawing, but was frustrated by the school’s conservatism.
Klimt and first exhibitions
In 1907, Schiele sought out Gustav Klimt. Klimt generously mentored younger artists, and he took a particular interest in the gifted young Schiele, buying his drawings, offering to exchange them for some of his own, arranging models for him and introducing him to potential patrons. He also introduced Schiele to the Wiener WerkstätteWiener Werkstätte
Established in 1903, the Wiener Werkstätte was a production community of visual artists. The workshop brought together architects, artists and designers whose first commitment was to design art which would be accessible to everyone...
, the arts and crafts workshop connected with the Secession
Vienna Secession
The Vienna Secession was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian artists who had resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists, housed in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. This movement included painters, sculptors, and architects...
. In 1908 Schiele had his first exhibition, in Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg
Klosterneuburg is an attractive small town in Lower Austria, Austria with a population of 24,442.It is located on the Danube, immediately north of Vienna, from which it is separated by the Kahlenberg and Leopoldsberg hills...
. Schiele left the Academy in 1909, after completing his third year, and founded the Neukunstgruppe ("New Art Group") with other dissatisfied students.
Klimt invited Schiele to exhibit some of his work at the 1909 Vienna Kunstschau, where he encountered the work of Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
, Jan Toorop
Jan Toorop
Jean Theodoor Toorop , better known as Jan Toorop, was an Indo painter, whose works straddle the space between the Symbolist painters and Art Nouveau.-Biography:...
, and Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
among others. Once free of the constraints of the Academy's conventions, Schiele began to explore not only the human form, but also human sexuality. At the time, many found the explicitness of his works disturbing.
Style
Some view Schiele's work as being grotesque, erotic, pornographic, or disturbing, focusing on sex, death, and discovery. He focused on portraits of others as well as himself. In his later years, while he still worked often with nudes, they were done in a more realist fashion. He also painted tributes to Van Gogh's Sunflowers as well as landscapes and still lifes.Controversy
In 1911, Schiele met the seventeen-year-old Valerie (Wally) Neuzil, who lived with him in Vienna and served as a model for some of his most striking paintings. Very little is known of her, except that she had previously modelled for Gustav Klimt and might have been one of his mistresses. Schiele and Wally wanted to escape what they perceived as the claustrophobic Viennese milieu, and went to the small town of Český Krumlov (Krumau)Český Krumlov
Český Krumlov is a small city in the South Bohemian Region of the Czech Republic, best known for the fine architecture and art of the historic old town and Český Krumlov Castle...
in southern Bohemia
Bohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
. Krumau was the birthplace of Schiele's mother; today it is the site of a museum dedicated to Schiele. Despite Schiele's family connections in Krumau, he and his lover were driven out of the town by the residents, who strongly disapproved of their lifestyle, including his alleged employment of the town's teenage girls as models.
Together they moved to Neulengbach
Neulengbach
Neulengbach is a municipality in the district of Sankt Pölten-Land in Lower Austria, Austria.Artist Egon Schiele was put in prison for three days in Neulengbach for creating "pornographic" drawings of his girlfriend Wally Neuzil....
, 35 km west of Vienna, seeking inspirational surroundings and an inexpensive studio in which to work. As it was in the capital, Schiele's studio became a gathering place for Neulengbach's delinquent children. Schiele's way of life aroused much animosity among the town's inhabitants, and in April 1912 he was arrested for seducing a young girl below the age of consent.
When they came to his studio to place him under arrest, the police seized more than a hundred drawings which they considered pornographic
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
. Schiele was imprisoned while awaiting his trial. When his case was brought before a judge, the charges of seduction and abduction were dropped, but the artist was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children. In court, the judge burned one of the offending drawings over a candle flame. The twenty-one days he had already spent in custody were taken into account, and he was sentenced to only three days' imprisonment. While in prison, Schiele created a series of 12 paintings depicting the difficulties and discomfort of being locked in a jail-cell.
In 1914, Schiele glimpsed the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms, who lived with their parents across the street from his studio in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing, 101 Hietzinger Hauptstrasse. They were a middle-class family and Protestant by faith; their father was a master locksmith. In 1915, Schiele chose to marry the more socially acceptable Edith, but had apparently expected to maintain a relationship with Wally. However, when he explained the situation to Wally, she left him immediately and never saw him again. This abandonment led him to paint Death and the Maiden, where Wally's portrait is based on a previous pairing, but Schiele's is newly struck. (In February 1915, Schiele wrote a note to his friend Arthur Roessler stating: "I intend to get married, advantageously. Not to Wally.") Despite some opposition from the Harms family, Schiele and Edith were married on 17 June 1915, the anniversary of the wedding of Schiele's parents.
War
World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
now began to shape Schiele's life and work. Three days after his wedding, Schiele was ordered to report for active service in the army where he was initially stationed in Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. In the army, Schiele was treated well by officers who respected his artistic talent. He never saw any fighting at the front, and was able to continue painting and sketching while guarding Russian prisoners of war, and doing light guard duties. By 1917, he was back in Vienna, able to focus on his artistic career. His output was prolific, and his work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents. He was invited to participate in the Secession's 49th exhibition, held in Vienna in 1918. Schiele had fifty works accepted for this exhibition, and they were displayed in the main hall. He also designed a poster for the exhibition, which was reminiscent of the Last Supper
Last Supper
The Last Supper is the final meal that, according to Christian belief, Jesus shared with his Twelve Apostles in Jerusalem before his crucifixion. The Last Supper provides the scriptural basis for the Eucharist, also known as "communion" or "the Lord's Supper".The First Epistle to the Corinthians is...
, with a portrait of himself in the place of Christ. The show was a triumphant success, and as a result, prices for Schiele's drawings increased and he received many portrait commissions.
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, and Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
Schiele participated in numerous group exhibitions, including those of the Neukunstgruppe in Prague in 1910 and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
in 1912; the Sonderbund
Sonderbund
The Sonderbund War of November 1847 was a civil war in Switzerland. It ensued after seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund in 1845 in order to protect their interests against a centralization of power...
, Cologne
Cologne
Cologne is Germany's fourth-largest city , and is the largest city both in the Germany Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia and within the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area, one of the major European metropolitan areas with more than ten million inhabitants.Cologne is located on both sides of the...
, in 1912; and several Secessionist shows in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, beginning in 1911. In 1913, the Galerie Hans Goltz
Hans Goltz
Hans Goltz was a German art dealer, known as a pioneer of modernism in art....
, Munich, mounted Schiele's first solo show. A solo exhibition of his work took place in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1914.
In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
epidemic that claimed more than 20,000,000 lives in Europe reached Vienna. Edith, who was six months pregnant, succumbed to the disease on 28 October. Schiele died only three days after his wife. He was 28 years old. During the three days between their deaths, Schiele drew a few sketches of Edith; these were his last works.
Legacy
Schiele has been the subject of a biographical film, Excess & Punishment (aka Egon Schiele Exzess und BestrafungEgon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung
Egon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung, also known as Egon Schiele Excess and Punishment and Egon Schiele, enfer et passion is a 1980 film based on the life of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele. It stars Mathieu Carriere as Schiele with Jane Birkin as his artist muse Wally and Christine Kaufman as his...
), a 1980 film originating in Germany with a European cast that explores Schiele's artistic demons leading up to his early death. The film is directed by Herbert Vesely
Herbert Vesely
Herbert Vesely was an Austrian film director and screenwriter. He directed 17 films between 1955 and 1988.-Selected filmography:* Egon Schiele Exzess und Bestrafung * The Bread of Those Early Years...
and stars Mathieu Carriere
Mathieu Carrière
Mathieu Carrière is a German actor.Carrière grew up in Berlin and Lübeck; he attended the Jesuit boarding school Lycée Saint-François-Xavier in Vannes, France, a school which had previously been attended by the director of Carrière's first major film, Volker Schlöndorff. In 1969 Carrière moved to...
as Schiele, Jane Birkin
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...
as his early artistic muse, Christine Kaufman as his wife and Kristina Van Eyck as her sister. As well, his life was represented in a theatrical dance production by Stephan Mazurek called Egon Schiele, presented in May 1995, for which Rachel's
Rachel's
Rachel's is an American chamber music group that formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1991. Former Rodan guitarist, Jason Noble, played music individually and referred to himself as Rachel's but then began collaborating with now core members, violist Christian Frederickson, and pianist Rachel Grimes...
, an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
post-rock
Post-rock
Post-rock is a subgenre of rock music characterized by the influence and use of instruments commonly associated with rock, but using rhythms and "guitars as facilitators of timbre and textures" not traditionally found in rock...
group, composed a score titled Music for Egon Schiele
Music for Egon Schiele
Music for Egon Schiele is the second LP from the instrumental group Rachel's. It was released in February 1996 on Quarterstick Records.The album was composed as the score to a theatrical production by Stephan Mazurek, titled Egon Schiele, about the life of painter Egon Schiele which was staged by...
. For The Featherstonehaughs
The Featherstonehaughs
The Featherstonehaughs are a London-based, all-male contemporary dance company, described by Arts Council England as "one of the leading contemporary dance companies in Britain," presenting work that "is diverse, witty and instantly recognisable."-History:...
contemporary dance company, Lea Anderson
Lea Anderson
Lea Anderson MBE is a British choreographer and artistic director. With Teresa Barker and Gaynor Coward, she co-founded The Cholmondeleys and The Featherstonehaughs dance companies, with which she has choreographed over 100 works....
choreographed The Featherstonehaughs Draw On The Sketchbooks Of Egon Schiele in 1997.
Schiele's life and work have also been the subject of essays, including a discussion of his works by fashion photographer Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
in an essay on portraiture entitled "Borrowed Dogs." Mario Vargas Llosa
Mario Vargas Llosa
Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...
uses the work of Schiele as a conduit to seduce and morally exploit a main character in his 1997 novel The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto..
Portrait of Wally
Portrait of Wally
Portrait of Wally is a 1912 oil painting by Austrian painter Egon Schiele of Valerie "Wally" Neuzil, a woman he met in 1911 when she was 17 years old and who was a model for a number of Schiele's most striking paintings...
, a 1912 portrait, was purchased by Rudolf Leopold
Rudolf Leopold
Rudolf Leopold was an Austrian art collector, whose collection of 5,000 works of art was purchased by the Government of Austria and used to create the Leopold Museum, of which he was made director for life...
in 1954 and became part of the collection of the Leopold Museum
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
when it was established by the Austrian government, purchasing more than 5,000 pieces that Leopold had owned. After a 1997-1998 exhibit of Schiele's work at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the painting was seized by order of the New York County District Attorney
New York County District Attorney
The New York County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for New York County , New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws....
and had been tied up in litigation by heirs of its former owner who claim that the painting was Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder
Nazi plunder refers to art theft and other items stolen as a result of the organized looting of European countries during the time of the Third Reich by agents acting on behalf of the ruling Nazi Party of Germany. Plundering occurred from 1933 until the end of World War II, particularly by military...
and should be returned to them. The dispute was settled on July 20, 2010 and the picture subsequently purchased by the Leopold Museum
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
for 19 Million USD.
The Leopold Museum
Leopold Museum
The Leopold Museum, housed in the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Austria, is home to one of the largest collections of modern Austrian art, featuring artists such as Egon Schiele, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl....
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
houses perhaps Schiele's most important and complete collection of work, featuring over 200 exhibits. The museum sold one of these, “Houses With Colorful Laundry (Suburb II)”, for $40.1 million at Sotheby's in 2011. Other notable collections of Schiele's art include the Egon Schiele-Museum, Tulln and Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.The art collection includes masterpieces from the Middle Ages and Baroque until the 21st century, though it focuses on Austrian painters from the Fin de Siècle and Art Nouveau period...
, Vienna.
Sources
- Egon Schiele: The Complete Works Catalogue Raisonné of all paintings and drawings by Jane Kallir, 1990, Harry N. Abrams, New York, ISBN 0810938022
- Egon Schiele: The Egoist (Egon Schiele: Narcisse échorché) by Jean-Louis Gaillemin; Translated from the French by Liz Nash ©2006 ISBN 978-0-500-30121-0 & ISBN 0-500-30121-2
External links
- "Leopold Museum, Vienna", Leopold Museum, Vienna, houses the largest collection of Schiele's work.
- "Oesterreichische Galerie, Belvedere" The Oesterreichische Galerie, Belvedere, in Vienna contains one of the greatest collections of Schiele's work.
- "Live Flesh" A review of Schiele's work by Arthur DantoArthur DantoArthur Coleman Danto Arthur Coleman Danto Arthur Coleman Danto (born January 1, 1924 is an American art critic, and professor of philosophy. He is best known as the influential, long-time art critic for The Nation and for his work in philosophical aesthetics and philosophy of history, though he...
in the The Nation. - Neue Galerie for German and Austrian Art (New York)
- Self-portraits by Schiele