Detail of 'Self-Portrait with Physalis' (1912) by Egon SchieleCredit: Bridgeman
Egon Schiele had a brief, calamitous life, dead at 28. The “Cursed Artist” found each day more turbulent than the last, until he succumbed to the Spanish Flu pandemic that swept across Europe, reaching Vienna in 1920.
Growing up, he watched his father’s mental health deteriorate, a sister die aged 10, his mother lose a daughter at birth and then another a year later – it was a morbidly bleak upbringing for an already hypersensitive young man. In his painting Dead Mother, completed when he was 20, he was clearly still traumatised by his mother’s suffering, creating the moving image of a parent seen with her stillborn child as she lies with the foetus in a pool of amniotic fluid.
In 1906, Schiele had enrolled in Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts, where his gifts quickly became apparent. His professor, Christian Griepenkerl, was asked about the boy’s abilities, and replied: “Does he have talent? Yes, too much. He messes up the entire class.”
Soon to be seen as a natural member of the Vienna Secession movement, Schiele had become a protégé of its leader, the great Gustav Klimt. But unlike Klimt, whose paintings had a radiant grandeur to them, Schiele wanted to emphasise raw expression. He was particularly inspired by the young female form and, conveniently, his sister allowed him to study the evolution of her body. A revelatory painting from this time was Portrait of Gerti Schiele in which she is seen against a stark, blank background, monochrome and unadorned, the graphic power of his drawing translated dramatically in paint.
After Schiele met 17-year-old Valerie Neuzil, one of Klimt’s models, she became his mistress, as well as a muse for many of his greatest portraits. Routinely named “Wally”, she appears in a number of his psychologically charged works. Schiele’s efforts were starting to be recognised by his peers, who were struck by his sombre palette, irregular contours and dark symbolism. Captivated by the immediacy of drawing, he still regarded it as his primary art form, and this translated into paintings with an emphasis on contour and striking draughtsmanship.
As with many great artists, Gustav Klimt was not successful during his lifetime. His paintings repelled and offended the bourgeoisie in Vienna, a society riven by the fear that overt sexuality led to decadence. Considered possibly pornographic, Klimt’s work was so deeply unpopular that it wasn’t until the Fifties, when a sexual revolution swept the West, that his paintings were rediscovered. He was swiftly propelled to totemic status, one of the most highly regarded artists of the century.
Today, his paintings feature prominently on lists of works that have fetched the highest prices at auction: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907), for instance, sold for £101.6 million in 2006.
Klimt was a man who spoke very little about his paintings, simply suggesting that if you wanted to learn about him you could look at his work. He did offer one infamous insight: “All art is erotic.”
This viewpoint is particularly apt when studying The Virgins (also referred to as The Maiden), a scene of sexual awakening portrayed as a romantic transition into womanhood. Despite the young ladies pictured being cloaked in Klimt’s signature flowers and vibrant swirls of colour, its sexuality is intended to be overpowering.
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He painted The Virgins, which is perhaps his most allegorical painting, in 1913, towards the end of his life. It was the climax of his preoccupation with female erotic dream states, which he explored in their various manifestations from virginity to maturity. In the painting, the central character sits among five other women who form a cloud-like constellation, seemingly suspended in space, a girlish contemplation of the future awaiting her.
