Discover the legacy of Egon Schiele (1890-1918), an Austrian Expressionist artist whose work is noted for its intensity and raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits.

This download features 132 hi-res images, in jpeg format, by the artist Egon Schiele.

The images are all 600dpi or 300dpi and range in size from 3204 pixels wide/tall to 6606 pixels wide/tall.

The pictures are out of copyright and in the public domain, so you are free to use them in whatever way you'd like, including commercial use.

Warning:- Download contains nudity and sexualised images.

Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (1890-1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterise Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Gustav Klimt, a figurative painter of the early 20th century, was a mentor to Schiele.

Schiele was born in 1890 in Tulln, Lower Austria. His father, Adolf Schiele, was the station master of the Tulln station in the Austrian State Railways. Egon Schiele's mother Marie, was born in 1861. Schiele had three sisters, Elvira, Melanie and Gertrude. Elvira passed away as a child, the cause of death being the congenital syphilis inherited from her father. 

As a child, Schiele was fascinated by trains, and would spend many hours drawing them. Seeing Schiele's drawing as a detriment to his son's schoolwork, his father destroyed these sketchbooks.

Schiele senior was known to have been interested in collecting minerals and butterflies and also liked to draw. Schiele's family life was deeply influenced by his father's illness and, as the syphilis progressed, it left him in a state of mental confusion and would often cast him into fits of rage.

At secondary school, Schiele was regarded as a strange child. Shy and reserved, he did poorly at school except in athletics and drawing, and was usually in classes of younger pupils. He also displayed a sexual interest in his younger sister Gertrude (known as Gerti), and his father once broke down the door of a locked room that Egon and Gerti were in to see what they were doing, only to discover them developing film. When he was sixteen, he took the twelve-year-old Gerti by train to Trieste without permission and spent a night in a hotel room with her.

When Schiele was 14 years old, his father died from syphilis, and the family that had been fairly wealthy was left impoverished. Schiele's elder sister Melanie became the family's sole breadwinner when she was hired as a ticket clerk at the local railway station.

Schiele and his younger sister Gerti became wards of his uncle (by marriage to Schiele's paternal aunt Maria), Leopold Czihaczek, also a railway official. Although he wanted Schiele to follow in his footsteps, and was distressed at his lack of interest in academia, he recognised Schiele's talent for drawing and allowed him a tutor, the artist Ludwig Karl Strauch. Eventually the uncle renounced his guardianship of Schiele and Schiele became dependent on financial support from his mother to continue his art studies. This support was however cut off due to his sister Melanie objecting to its expense and it caused a rift in the family.

In 1906 Schiele applied at the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Arts and Crafts) in Vienna, where Gustav Klimt had once studied. Within his first year there, Schiele was sent, at the insistence of several faculty members, to the more traditional Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Vienna in 1906. His main teacher at the academy was Christian Griepenkerl, a painter whose strict doctrine and ultra-conservative style frustrated and dissatisfied Schiele so much that he left after three years.

In 1907, Schiele sought out Gustav Klimt, who generously mentored younger artists. Klimt took a particular interest in the young Schiele, buying his drawings, offering to exchange them for some of his own, arranging models for him and introducing him to potential patrons. Schiele's earliest works between 1907 and 1909 contain strong similarities with those of Klimt, as well as influences from Art Nouveau.

In 1908 Schiele had his first exhibition in Klosterneuburg. Schiele left the academy in 1909, after completing his third year, and founded the Neukunstgruppe ("New Art Group") with other dissatisfied students. In his early years, Schiele was strongly influenced by Klimt and Kokoschka. Although imitations of their styles, particularly with the former, are noticeably visible in Schiele's first works, he soon evolved his own distinctive style.

In 1910, Schiele began experimenting with nudes, and within a year a definitive style featuring emaciated, sickly-coloured figures, often with strong sexual overtones, began to emerge. Schiele also began painting and drawing children.

When he moved to Neulengbach, 35 km (22 mi) west of Vienna, seeking inspirational surroundings and an inexpensive studio in which to work, young people and teenagers gathered in Schiele's new studio. Schiele's way of life aroused much animosity among the town's inhabitants, and in April 1912 he was arrested under suspicion of kidnapping and seducing a girl of 13.

When the police came to his studio to place Schiele under arrest, they seized more than a hundred drawings which they considered pornographic. Schiele was imprisoned while awaiting his trial. When his case was brought before a judge, the charges were dropped, but the artist was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children. In court, the judge burned one of the drawings over a candle flame. The twenty-one days he had already spent in custody were taken into account, and he was sentenced to a further three days' imprisonment. While in prison, Schiele created a series of paintings depicting his jail cell.

In 1914, Schiele glimpsed the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms, who lived with their parents across the street from his studio in the Viennese district of Hietzing. They were a middle-class family whose father was a master locksmith. In 1915, Schiele chose to marry the more socially acceptable Edith, but had apparently expected to continue his relationship with his previous mistress Wally. However, when he explained the situation to Wally, she left him immediately and never saw him again. This abandonment led him to paint Death and the Maiden, where Wally's portrait is based on a previous pairing, but Schiele's is newly struck. Despite some opposition from the Harms family, Schiele and Edith were married on 17 June 1915, the anniversary of the wedding of Schiele's parents.

Although Schiele avoided conscription for almost a year, World War I now began to shape his life and work. Three days after his wedding, Schiele was ordered to report for active service in the army where he was initially stationed in Prague. Edith came with him and stayed in a hotel in the city, while Egon lived in an exhibition hall with his fellow conscripts. They were allowed by Schiele's commanding officer to see each other occasionally.

During the war, Schiele's paintings became larger and more detailed. His military service, however, gave him limited time, and much of his output consisted of linear drawings of scenery and military officers. Around this time, Schiele also began experimenting with the themes of motherhood and family. His wife Edith was the model for most of his female figures, but during the war (due to circumstance) many of his sitters were male. Since 1915, Schiele's female nudes became fuller in figure, but many were deliberately illustrated with a lifeless doll-like appearance.

Despite his military service, Schiele was still exhibiting in Berlin. He also had successful shows in Zürich, Prague, and Dresden. His first duties consisted of guarding and escorting Russian prisoners. Because of his weak heart and his excellent handwriting, Schiele was eventually given a job as a clerk in a POW camp near the town of Mühling. There, he was allowed to draw and paint imprisoned Russian officers; his commander even gave him a disused storeroom to use as a studio. Since Schiele was in charge of the food stores in the camp, he and Edith could enjoy food beyond rations.

By 1917, he was back in Vienna and able to focus on his artistic career. His output was prolific, and his work reflected the maturity of an artist in full command of his talents. He was invited to participate in the Secession's 49th exhibition, held in Vienna in 1918. Schiele had fifty works accepted for this exhibition, and they were displayed in the main hall. He also designed a poster for the exhibition; it was reminiscent of the Last Supper, with a portrait of himself in the place of Christ. The show was a triumphant success. As a result, prices for Schiele's drawings increased and he received many portrait commissions.

In the autumn of 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic reached Vienna. Edith, who was six months pregnant, died from the disease on 28 October. Schiele, very sick and weak, was transferred from the couple's home to his in-laws' house. Due to fear of contagion, visitors would communicate with Schiele from afar by way of a mirror which was set up on the threshold of his room and the parlour. Among Schiele's last visitors were his mother Marie and sister Melanie.

Schiele died only three days after his wife. He was 28 years old. During the three days between their deaths, Schiele still drew a few sketches of Edith.