1890-1918
1890 Egon Schiele, the third child of Adolf Eugen Schiele, a superintendant of the imperial railway, and Marie Schiele, is bom on June 12 in die Lower Austrian town of Tulln. He is baptized Egon Leo Schiele. There are two older sisters: Elvira, bom. in 1883, who dies at the age of ten, and Melanie, bom in 1886. A fiual child, Gertrude, is bom in 1894. This sister will often pose for Schiele early in his career, often nude. She later marries the painter Anton Peschka.
1890-1905 Schiele's father, having previously served as a railway official in Lannsdorf, in Carinthia, functions as overseer of the train station in Tulln. The family lives in the manager's apartment in the station. By the time Schiele enters primary school, he is already producing drawings, mainly of Tulln's train station and the trains either passing through or standing on the siding. At ten Schiele begins secondary school in Krems. His performance is poor, however, and in 1902 his father transfers him to the larger provincial Gymnasium in Klosterneuburg. There his teachers soon complain that Schiele is disrupting their classes with his drawing. Adolf Schiele dies on New Year's Eve, 1905, most likely from some kind of progressive paralysis.
1906 There is thought of sending Schiele to the School of Applied Arts in Vienna. The drawings Schiele submits to the School of Applied Arts are so impressive that he is advised to think of the Academy of Fine Arts instead.
1907 Schiele brings great enthusiasm to the new challenge, but in no time his relations with his teachers turn sour.
1909 The exhibition committee for the Internationale Kunstschau 1909, headed by Gustav Klimt, selects four works by the young Schiele for inclusion. On this occasion Schiele gets to know the architect Josef Hoffinarm as well, and through him becomes affiliated with the Wiener Werkstaette.
1910 The Wiener Werkstaette publishes three Schiele fashion designs as postcards. Its director, Josef Hoffinann, also arranges for Schiele's participation in the Internationale Jagd-Ausstellung, presented from May to September.
1912 The New Art Group exhibits in the Kuenstlerhaus in Budapest at the beginning of the year.
1914 Schiele takes part for the first time in exhibitions in non-Gen-nau-speaking countries, first in Rome-at the Internationale Sezession-then in Brussels and Paris.
1915 An impressive Schiele retrospective is presented at the Viennese gallery Guido Arnot in January.
1917 In January Schiele is permitted to return to Vienna, where he is detailed to the Imperial and Royal Military Supply Depot for army employees in the field, under the conurrand of First Lieutenant Hans Rose.
1918 From one of Schiele's letters we learn that his wife, then six months pregnant, comes down with Spanish influenza on October 19. She dies nine days later, on October 28, The previous evening Schiele has made two drawings of her. These are his last works. He too has the flu, and on October 31 he succumbsat the age of twenty-eight.
Bibliography
Akademische Druck-und Verlangsanstalt 1985, 1986.
Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt. Egon Schiele: Blaetter aus Privatbesitz. Graz, 1985 (pt. 1) and 1986 (pt.2).Heinrich Benesch. Mein Weg mit Egon Schiele. New York, 1965.
Otto Benesch. Egon Schiele als Zeichner. Portfolio. Vienna: Druck und Verlag der Oesterreichischen Staatsdruckerei, 1951.
Helene 0. Borovitz. "Youth as Metaphor and Image in Wedekind, Kokoschka, and Schiele." Art Journal 33, no.3 (1974): 219-25.
Otto Kallir (Nirenstein). Egon Schiele: The Graphic Work. New York and Vienna, 1970.
Danielle Knafo. Egon Schiele: A Self in Creation. Cranbury, N.J., 1993.
Heimo Kuchling. Egon Schiele und sein Kreis. Ramerding, 1982.
Rudolf Leopold. "Egon Schiele:Ein Genie aus Oesterreich." BP Querschnitt I (spring 1959): 1920.
Sources
Magdalena Dabrowski. Egon Schiele- Leopold collection, Vienna . DuMont Buchverlag; 1997.