Love is everything, as long as love, in order to enrich me, to guide me in this direction, my heart lies in this, I want to devote my whole body to this experience...
—Egon Schiller
Egon Schiller
(Egon Schiele, 1890-1918)
Born on June 12, 1890 in Turn, Austria, austrian painting magnate, he was an important representative of the Viennese Secession, and an important expressionist painter of the early 20th century.
Schiller only lived to be 28 years old. In his paintings, the burning and extinguishing of the flesh can exist regardless of time.
When Schiller was 15 years old, his father contracted syphilis and his mother committed suicide.
The following year, his uncle sent him to the Vienna Academy of Arts, where he was the youngest student of the year. Hitler had also enrolled in this school before the war, and if he had not been turned away, there might not have been a world war.
Schiller's vast works are dark, erotic, and desperate.
In the era when everyone painted fat women, Schiller preferred rib essences, and he would deliberately ignore the background in the portraits, so the model showed a variety of twisted postures and hands in the air, without painting anything other than the characters.
Schiller was influenced by the ideas of Freud, Barr, and others, and his works were highly expressive, depicting distorted figures and limbs, and the subject matter was mostly self-portraits and portraits. Most are nude paintings, hence the title of erotic painter.
The pornography of art is not immoral if it is artistic enough. It becomes immoral only when the viewer looks at it in an immoral view.
—Egon Schiller
01
Schiller's entire childhood to adolescence was shrouded in death: 3 older brothers died shortly after birth; her sister died of encephalitis at the age of ten; Schiller's father died of complications of syphilis when she was 15...
The pain of repeatedly losing his loved ones has led him to indulge in a fascination with death and an extreme pursuit of physical love. The young Schiller is more like a depressed "angry youth":
His first nude model was his sister, Gorty.
It was also the second most important woman in his life.
Despite painting with his sister's nude, Schiller only used his sister as a model and did not do anything that exceeded the bottom line.
Whether then or now, using an underage sister as a nude model for oneself is a shocking move.
02
His second model, the daughter of a tribal chief, was named Moa.
Moa made a living as a stage performer in Vienna.
Desperate for fame, she agreed to Schiller to become his nude model.
What is truly beautiful must be consistent with nature on the one hand and with ideals on the other.
- Schiller
03
After Moa, Schiller welcomed one of the most important women in his life, Wally.
Wally was originally a model for Schiller's teacher Klimt, and he was fascinated at the first sight of Wally.
Left: Gustav Klimt, Portrait of Wally, 1916;
Right: Egon Schiller, The Woman in Black Soxel (Wally Neuzelle), 1913
Similarly, Wally fell in love with the talented painter at first sight. He didn't even get paid anything and was willing to be his model.
The mature and rich Wally is not only Schiller's gentle hometown, but also the muse in his paintings, the considerate partner in life: she runs the housework for him, visits everywhere, makes friends with dealers...
Schiller and Neuzell in the Czech Republic, 1913
Even when Schiller was charged with "pedophilia" and betrayed, she did not leave.
In order to paint, Schiller would hire some teenage girls as models.
At one point, one of the little girls accused Schiller of abducting and defiling underage girls.
This led to a case of abduction and defiling of underage girls, and the defendants went to court.
The media began to lash out at him, and words such as "pedophilia" and "pornographer" filled the main pages of newspapers.
In contrast, it was the great success of the Schiller exhibition, and all kinds of praise flew like snowflakes, which was gratifying.
The case ended with Schiller not being convicted of abducting a minor, but he was found guilty of using the minor for sexual display.
In addition, the judge took a painting of Nerner and demanded that it be destroyed in the courtroom.
Of course, Schiller refused.
In any art, the most precious thing is freedom.
In the face of the real world, artists of every era often need to have an indispensable conflict with the morality or law of the moment.
Those advanced, avant-garde ideas are always difficult to understand, but the truth is often here.
This is how Schiller protested in court —
As an artist, I have a responsibility to defend the freedom of art, and only ignorant people will question my artwork.
Schiller also defended himself in his diary —
I don't deny that there are a lot of erotic elements in my drawings and watercolors, but this has always fallen into the category of artistic creation. What artist in history has not been involved in erotic subjects?
But the judge ignored this, destroyed the painting in front of the crowd, and was imprisoned for three days.
After the storm, unable to stand the gossip of the villagers, Schiller moved with Wally.
Opposite the new home, there lived a pair of sisters, Eddit and Adella.
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Schiller returned to Vienna and met a pair of sisters from a house across the street, from middle-class, Protestant families, with whom he soon became close.
In February 1915, Schiller wrote to a friend:
"I'm getting married, but for the sake of the future, that woman isn't Wally..."
The simple phrase "for the future" excludes Wally.
Schiller was possessed by the scum man, abandoned Wally, who had accompanied him for many years, and married the second lady of the neighbor's house.
After marriage, Schiller has undergone a transformation, and he has never been bound, but when he paints his wife Etis, he has a little restraint.
Regular shirts, strict striped skirts, well-behaved white tip...
Such a neat dress and gentle brushstrokes are too rare in Schiller's past works full of love.
In addition to crying, Wally could not help herself, and chose to leave forever.
Before separating, Schiller used himself and Wally as models to paint a painting of the history of art.
"Death and the Maiden"
Originally the name of the painting was "Man and Girl".
Later, he crossed out the man and changed it to death.
Schiller felt that he was the god of death, that he had killed Wally
▼
Sex is everywhere, and so is pain. Schiller and his models are claustrophobic in an intimate and passionate world, and outside the studio, empires are collapsing and the world is at war.
In the first world war, all men of good physique were required to enlist in the army, and Schiller was no exception.
In order to be able to meet him again, Wally entered the barracks and became a nurse.
And the field of the closest family members, filled in the name of Schiller.
Unfortunately, before he saw Schiller, he fell ill with scarlet fever and died in the barracks.
For this reason, Schiller regretted for life.
He had said to Wally more than once: I need you.
Don't forget to add a sentence: used for painting.
It wasn't until Wally's death that he realized he was deeply in love with her.
In the year after the end of World War I, he also died of influenza.
He died on December 31, 2012 at the age of 2
In the days before his death, it had been his sister who had been taking care of him.
From beginning to end, the younger sister supported and helped her brother, even if she was wronged.
Schiller spent his life freely, but only his sister and Wally were the ones who understood him best.
His wife could not understand Schiller and advised him not to paint human portraits anymore, but to paint some flowers and trees.
But Schiller refused.
In his short life, he suffered from war and disease.
It can be said that he has always lived in an atmosphere of terror before his death.
These repressions and fears lurking deep within him lead to each of his paintings being filled with a twisted and painful emotion.
Exaggerated lines, large areas of color blocks, irregular humanoid shapes...
It embodies the painful struggle of people when the end comes.
The most splendid artistic treasures in history are basically forged by artists with their own blood and tears.
Great artists spend their lives in pain.
Egon Schiller, that's it.
The pornography of art is not immoral if it is artistic enough. It becomes immoral only when the viewer looks at it in an immoral view. People who deny sex are truly obscene because they insult the parents who gave birth to them in the most inferior way.
Geniuses like Schiller and erotics like Schiller, in the end it is only the 15-year-old Schiller who lost his loved ones and the schiller who is incompatible with society - he just wants to be loyal to a stable lover, a happy home.
Unfortunately, from the very beginning, he fell in love with the wrong color.
-- THE END --