Egon Schiele Self-portraits and Portraits

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) is one of the most important Austrian artists of the twentieth century. This publication, produced to accompany an exhibition in the Belvedere, Vienna, is the first to focus on his portraits and self-portraits. Schiele was influenced by Gustav Klimt during his early career but soon discovered his own mode of expression. By the time of his premature death he had created an impressive oeuvre that concentrates on the depiction of the human figure. In his portraits, Schiele tried to portray his models' state of mind in visual terms, thereby following contemporary developments in psychoanalysis. His numerous self-portraits attest to the fact that the artist embarked on his exploration of human emotions by observing his own personality. Some 100 portraits and self-portraits document Schiele's artistic development and his extraordinary accomplishments as a portraitist. Confrontational and often explicitly erotic, they repeatedly provoked protest by testing the boundaries of traditional portraiture. Largely devoid of props or scenery, they reflect the artist's intensive study of the portrayal of emotional states. Schiele's examination of the self began with his own person: his self-portraits are fascinating glimpses inside the mind of an extraordinarily gifted artist as well as seminal works of originality and deep empathy with the human condition.