On October 31, 1918, artistic genius Egon Schiller came to the end of his life's journey. In his short life, he painted himself and all kinds of "others", and this time, he chose to ask someone to photograph his dying posture.
In just 12 years, Schiller created more than 300 oil paintings, more than 2,500 drawings and watercolors. These works have frank and sharp expressions of the times, life and death, women, lust, etc., but for feelings and marriage, he only leaves a sentence that is completely contrary to the usual untamed:
For most ordinary people, long-term, soulmate companionship often ends in marriage, but Schiller obviously doesn't think so, or he doesn't think about it at all.
Stills from the movie Egon Schiller: Death and the Maiden
Schiller painted many female models in his lifetime, most notably Villani Willie Noizzi.
The two met in 1911. At the time, Schiller was twenty-one years old, and his friends described him as "rarely handsome and meticulous in appearance, and people could not even find an unshakeed stubble on his face." Villani is younger, 17 years old, she is lively and spontaneous, with brown-red hair and blue-green eyes, schiller is fascinated by it when he sees it.
Since then, she has become the goddess of inspiration for his creation and an important life partner.
Stills from the movie Egon Schiller: Death and the Maiden: Schiller paints Villani
They first moved to the small city of Cesky Krumlov, schiller's mother's hometown. Hiring several teenage girls as nude models, Schiller's studio was strongly disliked by the locals and had to move to Nurembach, a small town west of Vienna. There, Schiller used the landlord's 14-year-old daughter as his model, and this time he was arrested on charges of seducing underage girls.
Schiller's Villani Noizzi in a Red Shirt was written in 1913
In the history of art, there are many artists who have been unfairly treated for expressing the sensitive subject of "lust", such as Modi, such as Manet... But the ones who were thrown into prison for this reason, except for Schiller, really did not have a second one.
At that time, Vienna was the epitome of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on the verge of decline: the gap between the rich and the poor, the intensification of ethnic contradictions, the rejection of all reforms and progress by conservative forces, the appearance of a bustling city, filled with decadence, despair and uneasiness, people indulged in sex, seeking a moment of anesthesia and escape.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries
Parks and streets are full of homeless homeless girls, many of whom are caught up in the pornography industry developed in the last empire. Schiller took them back to the studio to work as models, giving the children temporary shelter.
In Schiller's pen, the innocent and fearless exposure of those adolescent girls, the dark and fawn-like eyes, and the exposed body that has not yet fully developed, with a naked erotic posture, form a strong contrast, which should be posed at Schiller's request.
Schiller's The Girl with the Black Hair (Partial) was written in 1910
If it were today, Schiller would probably have put the bottom of the prison in. And 100 years ago, this blunt and frank way of expressing "love and sex" was also too aggressive, which made the defenders very embarrassed.
As a result, more than a hundred of Schiller's paintings were seized as evidence of pornography. Despite his struggle in the name of art and his statement that he had taken in the girls out of kindness, the court convicted him of "polluting culture and art with pornography," sentenced him to 24 days in prison, and let him watch his sketches burn.
Because of Schiller's "deviance", many friends choose to stay away from him, but Villani does not abandon him. She visited Schiller every day in prison, throwing fruit and letters at him across the railing. Young girls use this special "dating" method to express support and loyalty to their lovers.
Schiller's Death and the Maiden was written from 1915 to 1916
Schiller also left a large number of paintings for Villani, the most famous being Death and the Maiden, where Schiller, who incarnated as the "God of Death", hugged Villani tightly. This is Schiller's "reminiscence" after their breakup, which is both a tug-of-war between feelings and death, and a prophecy of the tragic ending of the two.
After four years of falling in love, Schiller abandoned Villani and turned to the arms of the middle-class Bai Fumei Edise for very realistic and reasonable reasons: he was of marriageable age and needed a door-to-door marriage partner, and Villani, who was from a low birth, was obviously not in his consideration.
Schiller's Villani Willie Noizzi was written in 1912
It is said that the only condition on which Edith agreed to Schiller's marriage proposal was that he must sever relations with Villani, to which Schiller agreed. He allows Edise to "negotiate" with Villani, but privately asks to maintain a relationship with her, promising to arrange a separate vacation for the two every year, but Villani flatly refuses.
Villani later recovered from the pain of abandonment and became a war nurse, but contracted scarlet fever in 1917 and died in a war hospital.
Schiller's self-portrait
Schiller, on the other hand, has a crush on Edise's origins, but doesn't care which of the two sisters it is. In the end, it was his sister who married him despite the strong opposition of his family.
Judging from Schiller's post-marriage creation, the relationship between the husband and wife seems to be good. His painting style has changed significantly, there are no longer angular lines in the painting, and the colors are softer and clearer, making people feel the "seriousness" that has not been seen in previous creations.
Schiller's portrait of his wife, Edith
That refined and keen sensibility, at this time, has become a little late, and the once youthful madness has gradually been smoothed out by the peaceful life. In particular, he painted many paintings with his wife as a model, most of them conservative and elegant—she was a devout Catholic who did not want to expose her body to the public eye.
In 2018, schiller passed away for a hundred years. The Vienna Tourist Board created a propaganda poster for "Vienna Modernism 2018" based on Schiller's painting, which was censored in the UK and Germany. Pictured here's a poster with a private part that reads, "Sorry, it's still too bold for today, 100 years later." To artistic freedom. ”
In fact, in a seemingly untamed life, Schiller's thinking and desire for family life have always been traceable.
For example, Schiller's father wanted him to grow up to be a civil servant and live a stable middle-class life, so when he discovered Schiller's talent for painting, he threw his sketchbook into the furnace very simply and rudely.
This talented but sensitive and gloomy teenager did not receive any support from his father. But when his father died of syphilis from a prostitute, Schiller was devastated. For a long time, he fantasized that his father was still around, and he was very dissatisfied with his mother's lack of miss and remembrance of her husband.
Schiller of childhood
His sister Gorty was Schiller's first fan and his first body model. The brothers and sisters are very affectionate, and Gorty accompanies his brother through the low points of creation, and after his marriage, he often helps his life.
When the court burned Schiller's paintings, he, in addition to repeatedly emphasizing the need for art, said: "People who deny sex are really filthy because they insult the parents who gave birth to them in the most inferior way." ”
Schiller also set the date of his marriage to Edith on June 17, 1915, the wedding anniversary of Schiller's parents. He also painted many portraits of Edith during the last three days of his life.
Schiller's most important late work, The Family, was written in 1918
In the third year of his marriage to Edith, his wife became pregnant, and Schiller also painted a large number of mature works during this period, and was invited to participate in the 49th exhibition of the Vienna Secession. The prices of his works soared, and he received many orders for portrait paintings.
Just as personal career and married life were about to be "double harvested", the Spanish flu (which the Spaniards called the French flu) swept across Europe like the Black Death in the Middle Ages, first the death of Schiller's mentor Gustav Klimt in the spring of 1918, and the death of his wife who was six months pregnant in the autumn.
Schiller was so frightened that he closed the doors and windows of his home tightly and locked himself in his room, as if this would isolate the virus. However, just three days later, his life also came to an end.
Schiller died of the Spanish flu on 31 October 1918 at the age of 28
epilogue:
Most of the genius artists are narcissistic and selfish, and all they are really loyal to is the self and art.
In dealing with feelings, Schiller is cold and snobbish, a proper scumbag; he longs for the warmth of marriage, but this warmth belongs to him alone in the end. And the women in the relationship and marriage, in Schiller's eyes, may be like he himself said: "All things are living walking dead." ”
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