Egon Schiele was a mixed media artist known for his wildly expressive and distorted portraiture work. He was born in 1890, Austria and began drawing at a young age. In 1907, after spending a year at an art school, Schiele reached out to Gustav Klimt to mentor him. Klimt had taken an interest to Schiele and Schiele began to take influence in Klimt’s work as well as from Art Nouveau. After leaving the academy in 1909, Schiele’s was able to express the human body unconventionally and his style began to strengthen and form even further. During WWI, Schiele was ordered to report for active service but was given clerical work due to his weak heart and excellent handwriting. He was given a space to use as a studio where he would draw and paint imprisoned Russian officers. In 1918, the pandemic had reached Vienna and Schiele and his pregnant wife had succumbed to the disease. Schiele was only 28 years old when he died.
Although Egon Schiele died at such a young age, he created a huge selection of work and was able to develop his style and become a leading artist in Expressionism. His colorful and erotic portraiture feel very raw and grotesque. Schiele worked in many mediums but mostly focused on gouache, watercolor, crayon and sometimes oils. Often you see he uses black crayon for his outlines, leaving harsh and bold color but rough and unpolished. Schiele’s figures are slightly distorted, and often emaciated with exaggerated features. He’s not shy about using color and his portraiture features purples, blues, greens and yellows for highlights and shadows creating really interesting effects.
One of my favorite works is his Seated Male Nude, Back View (1910), mediums unknown. The figure is very emaciated with an exaggerated torso. The black crayon is used to distinguish the bones of the spine following the back of the figure and the colors are painted to reflect a boney ribcage. The boney arse on this figure is exaggerated using these very geometric shapes as an outline. Even the posture has a sinister feel to it with the arm wrapped around the figure’s head, grabbing onto the back of the head with a dark, claw-like hand. Despite this distorted and creepy figure Schiele’s wide use of color makes the piece an interesting bright.The colors used are quite warm toned with reds, oranges, yellows and bright greens. The yellow and green tone does feel sickly on a portrait but its warm colors contrast the grotesque figure.
Though Schiele’s fame comes from his portrait work, he has produced some landscape work in the past. Schiele started painting trains and train stations, as his father and uncle were both railway workers. This is his piece titled House with Drying Laundry (1917), a cityscape that, although does not feature distorted figures, Schiele’s style still shines through. His lines are rough and imperfect, slightly distorted. His color scheme is a little bit dark with pops of color. Schiele’s painting technique is broad and general, never applying large surfaces evenly, giving a feeling of texture or movement to his work. Although Schiele’s landscapes are limited and he is much more well known for his portraiture, his style is very similar throughout his work with twists of happy warm colors placed on ominous images.
Overall, I find Egon Schiele’s work very unique and fun. His style reminds me a lot of Basquiat, who also died at a young age. Their work both have a lot of sinister overtones, and are highly colorful. Schiele’s focus was more on distorted figure drawing, exaggerated features and often highly sexualized, or erotic postures. Schiele’s creativity and expression may be a reflection of his own twisted fantasies but his greatest skill was his use of color and his application of it.
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