Egon Schiele

Egon Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter who revolutionized the view of the classical nude with his radical body images. His early predilection for the medium of drawing, led Egon Schiele to the Vienna Academy at the age of 16. There he learned traditional painting techniques in the class of Christian Griepenkerl. Even as a student, Schiele rebelled against the rigid structures of academic training and founded the Wiener Neukunstgruppe together with other fellow artists, which presented progressive exhibitions outside the recognized art world. He received support from Gustav Klimt in particular, who supported the young artist throughout his life as an intellectual mentor and financier. Thus Schiele developed his completely new and idiosyncratic pictorial language, which brought him international recognition early on. His work is characterized by depictions of twisted, sick bodies that question traditional ideals of beauty and introduce the allure ugliness into art.