Portrait Erich Lederer, 1912By Egon Schiele

The bodily distortions, explicit eroticism and anguish which made Egon Schiele’s artworks unpopular during his lifetime are the same features which make them so mesmerizing today. Schiele (1890 – 1918) was an exceptionally prolific Austrian Expressionist who was a protégé of Gustav Klimt, and whose formidable talents were fully matured when he was a teenager. He created emotionally charged self-portraits and allegories, but was best-known for his nude or semi-nude drawings of women, portraying them in awkwardly contracted poses to convey distress. Arrested for immorality and seduction, he created numerous watercolors and drawings during his two-week imprisonment. Dying prematurely from the Spanish flu, Schiele left a legacy of almost 3,500 compelling artworks.