Egon Shiele: Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up

One of the multiple benefits of living in our house Clapham for some while ( 3 years) is that we have discovered an artist: Egon Schiele. The portrait of Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up (1917) that apparently is exhibited in the Narodni Galerie ( Prague) was hanging in front of us when sleeping for a roghly 800 nights. Joan says that he likes the portrait because recalls Marta ( may be after getting up and going to the gym)- other might well think different. But see, the life of this Austrian artist is worth it.

The life story if Egon Shiele is an interersting one . Bron nearby Vienna in 1890, his father died before a deteriorating mental condition aged fifty-four. He met a large array of Austrian artists such as Klimt and von Guetersloh and as a result of the latter got into erotic sort of painting. In 1911 Schiele met the seventeen-year-old Wally Neuzil, who was to live with him for a while and serve as the model for some of his best paintings. They had problems in setteling down and were contronted quite often with the disapproval of the inhabitants govern the sort of erotic nature of his drawings. In 1912 Schiele was imprisoned, to await trial for seducing a young girl below the age of consent. When the case came before a judge the charges of abduction and seduction were dropped, but the artist was found guilty of exhibiting an erotic drawing in a place accessible to children. The year 1915 marked a turning-point in Schiele's life. Some time in the previous year he had met two middleclass girls who lived opposite his studio. Edith and Adéle harms were the daughters of a master locksmith. Schiele was attracted to both of them, but eventually fixed his sights on Edith; by April 1915 he was engaged to her. Schiele and Edith were married, despite her family's opposition, in June 1915. Four days after his marriage Schiele was called up for war. Schiele's army service did not halt the growth of his reputation - he was now thought of as the leading Austrian artist of the younger generation, and was asked to take part in a government-sponsored exhibition in Stockholm and Copenhagen intended to improve Austria's image with the neutral Scandinavian powers. In 1918 he was invited to be a major participant in the Sezession's 49th exhibition. For this he produced a poster design strongly reminiscent of the Last Supper, with his own portrait in the place of Christ. Despite the war, the show was a triumph. Prices for Schiele's drawing trebled, and he was offered many portrait commissions. He and Edith moved to a new and grander house and studio. Their pleasure in it was brief. On 19 October 1918 Edith, who was pregnant, fell ill with Spanish influenza, then sweeping Europe. On 28 October she died. Schiele, who seems never to have written her a real love-letter, and who in the midst of her illness wrote his mother a very cool letter to say that she would probably not survive, was devastated by the loss. Almost immediately he came down with the same sickness, and died on 31 October, three days after his wife."