Egon Schiele

As the vast majority of the world is in the midst of this Corona pandemic, most people simply do not know (or do not want to know) that this is not the first (nor will it be the last) such pandemic to hit mankind. In fact, the current state of the Corona virus pales in comparison to earlier situations, most notably the 1918 flu pandemic which killed perhaps up to 50 Mio people (it remains debated). There is no doubt that this virus, coming right after World War I, ended up doing worse for an already decimated generation of young people (something that the Corona virus will never do) whose life and future was never to be. In this regard I recently listened to a podcast which mention Egon Schiele.

Egon Schiele passed away in October 1918 from the flu (in fact this was the large second wave of the pandemic) at the young age of 28 years. He was born in 1890 in the Austro Hungarian Empire, and by the time he passed away he was becoming one of the leading artists of Expressionism. Already at the age of 15, despite his father's opposition, his talent for drawing had been spotted and he was accepted at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He ended off leaving the academy, which he felt limited his artistic ambitions, and instead became a protege of Gustav Klimt (1862-1918, he also died from the Spanish flu) who was already an established and famous artist. Under Klimt Egon Schiele developed a distinctive style of representing portraits and the human body.

He was not only extremely talented, but also controversial: his artwork increasingly had a sexually explicit expression that increasingly caused concern amid conservatives, if not among the avant-garde artistic Vienna elites, as Schiele was increasingly invited to more and more exhibitions. At the same time, Schiele's liberal lifestyle, where he frequented many women of particularly young age, caused indignation. In 1912 he moved with his 17-year old lover to a the small village of Krumau (in Bohemia, in present-day Czechia), but the local inhabitants chased them out. Instead they moved to Neulengbach, in Austria, where they also arose local animosity, and Schiele was arrested for trying to seduce a 13-year old girl. While charges were eventually dropped, Schiele was sentenced for pornography and some of his drawings destroyed, as he spent 21 days in jail.

Schiele moved back to Vienna, and continued exhibiting, doing solo exhibitions in Paris and Munich, and in 1915 he married Edith, a young woman of a middle class background, who became a subject for many of his drawing. Schiele was enlisted during WWI, but did not see combat as he mainly served in a prison camp for Russians in an administrative role, where he continued producing artwork, and continued being invited to exhibit, although at a lower rate.

When leaving the army in 1917 Schiele and Edith moved back to Vienna and Schiele began again working prolifically, and he was invited to numerous important exhibitions. There was no doubt that he was one of the rising stars of the Vienna artistic movements. But that is when the pandemic ended it all: a six-month pregnant Edith contracted the Spanish flu when she went out to get some groceries in downtown Vienna. It only took three days for Edith and her unborn son to die, as Egon watched in sad desperation, and even sketched her in her deathbed. Three days after she died, on the day of her funeral, Egon Schiele also passed away from the virus.

What could have happened if the young Egon Schiele had lived on? He could have become one of the most known artists in the world, having strong influence in the art world as we know it, and becoming an everyday name as some of the world's best known artists. Much of his art can be seen at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, but truth be told, he passed away before he could influence the world of art as he could have done.