What are the main characteristics of Egon Schiele's landscape paintings?
Austrian artist Egon Schiele is known for his remarkable portraits which are expressive, raw and real. While Schiele is seen as one of the most remarkable portrait painters of the early 20th century, he also produced a wide variety of landscape paintings.
This story will look at a number of landscape paintings by Egon Schiele. Many of these reflect locations which are now in Czechia, places which held a special emotional resonance for Schiele.
Who was Egon Schiele?
Egon Schiele is one of the most important Austrian artists of the early 20th century.
Egon Schiele was born in 1890, and grew up in Lower Austria. His father died when he was 14. As a child, Schiele was not academic and was said to draw with 'a manic fluency'. His uncle, who became his guardian from 1904 onwards, sent him to a drawing tutor. Schiele later studied in Vienna, where he was frustrated by some of his teachers' conservative styles.
By the outbreak of World War I, Schiele had exhibited many portrait paintings and had become known for his distinctive style. Far from polite society portraits, Schiele's portraits are organic, erotic, wild and raw. He took influence from artists such as Gustav Klimt and art movements such as Expressionism and elements of Art Nouveau, though Schiele's style is very uniquely his own.
Schiele died in 1918 aged just 28 years old, as a result of catching Spanish influenza.
Many of Egon Schiele's portraits are nude studies. While he is lauded for his artistry, for many, his paintings were (and continue to be) controversial - they were considered to be pornographic, and his portrayal of young models raised questions about their consent.
His landscapes are a world away from his portraits.
What landscapes did Egon Schiele paint?
Egon Schiele painted and drew dozens of landscapes: from detailed studies of buildings and nature to works depicting wider cityscapes and landscapes.
Throughout his short life, he travelled a lot, spending time away from Vienna. Schiele found the city and its art scene oppressive, a space where many characters, personalities and opinions crowded his thoughts. He sought refuge on trips away from Vienna, with journeys to Bohemia, Carinthia, Trieste and the Wachau region.
As with his portrait paintings, Schiele was not interested in realistically reproducing landscapes on his canvases. Schiele did not aim for a literal depiction, but to convey the landscapes' souls, reflecting them as a source of solace and peace.
Schiele's paintings were not produced on location, rather they were interpretations composed from memory. He painted artworks with geometric motifs and flat compositions, without using perspective as so many artists before him had.
People almost never appear in Schiele's landscapes. Although he often depicted buildings and other structures built by humans, Schiele considered these landscapes to be like nature, spiritual places of inspiration and concentration.
I believe and know that copying from nature is meaningless to me, because I paint better pictures from memory, as a vision of the landscape.
Egon Schiele in Český Krumlov
Schiele felt a great connection with his mother's birthplace. Known then as Krumau in Bohemia, this town is now Český Krumlov in Czechia. The town is a recurring theme in Schiele's landscape paintings. He visited there frequently, sometimes staying for several months.
He painted a large number of landscapes of the medieval town, which is located on a bend in the Vltava river. Schiele depicts the city's medieval buildings in colourful, almost geometric blocks, contrasting with the monochromatic water of the river. He reduces the real colours of the landscapes to a reduced palette of earthy organic tones found in nature - browns, greens, blues, greys, black.
Rather than perfectly straight geometric lines, Schiele's landscape paintings have crooked, jagged, squiggly lines - reflecting a reality as lived rather than a reality depicted in architectural drawings. His buildings are organic - they look old and show signs of their age - moss and other plants invade.
In other artworks, Schiele focuses on individual buildings or details - depicting these solitary structures almost as monuments with just a few colours.
Egon Schiele’s landscapes transform nature and buildings with bold lines and expressive colours, portraying a world which seems both familiar and distorted.
We see not just the landscape, but the emotional intensity beneath its surface -making these landscapes as striking and unforgettable as his portraits.