Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up

Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Schiele was born in Tulln on the Danube. His father, Adolph... Schiele, worked for the Austrian State Railways as a station master; his mother, Marie Soukup, was from Krumau, in Bohemia. As a child, he attended the school run by the Stift Klosterneuburg, where his arts teacher K. L. Strauch recognized and supported Schiele's artistic talent. When Schiele was 15 years old, his father died from syphilis, and he became a ward of his maternal uncle, Leopold Czihaczec, who became distressed by Schiele's lack of interest in academic studies, yet recognized his passion and talent for art. In 1906 Schiele applied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna, where Gustav Klimt had once studied.
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