Egon Schiele, (born June 12, 1890, Tulln, near Viennaâdied Oct. 31, 1918, Vienna), Austrian Expressionist painter, draftsman, and printmaker noted for the eroticism of his figurative works. As a student at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (1907â09), Schiele was strongly influenced by the Jugendstil movement, the German Art Nouveau. He met Gustav Klimt, leader of the Vienna Sezession group, and the linearity and subtlety of Schieleâs work owe much to Klimtâs decorative elegance. Schiele, however, emphasized expression over decoration, heightening the emotive power of line with a feverish tension. He concentrated from the beginning on the human figure, and his candid, agitated treatment of erotic themes caused a sensation.
