Self Edifying Project #1

I always say I love art but when it comes to actual paintings I am embarrassingly ignorant.  I have found an "art box" in my house (it is literally a box that says "art box" on it in very arts letters).  It is full of post card sized paintings which I currently do not recognize but should.  Therefore, for my first blog project I have decided to go through this box, one painting a day.

The first painting is one I do recognize, but only because I have a much larger version of it taped to my bedroom door.

Artist: Egon Schiele

Nationality:  Austrian

b. Vienna, 1890

d. Vienna, 1918

Title: "The Artist's Wife" or "Seated Woman with Bent Knee"

Date: 1917

Schiele led a rather tragic life.  His father contracted Syphilis before marrying his much younger mother and thus caused a great deal of embarrassment for Egon through out his life.  Three days after Schiele married Edith Harms, he was drafted into the army.  Fortunately for him, he did not spend time on the front lines but instead was posted to guard russian POW's which allowed him to paint as well.  It is possible that this experience greatly influenced his dark and often grotesque, emaciated portraits.  This particular painting is of Schiele's wife Edith, a subject of many of his less shocking portraits.  Although Schiele's life was short, he lived during an age of art revolutions including fauvism, cubism and expressionism.  A post on this "age of isms" is coming next.