Timeline

Date

Event

1890

Egon Schiele is born on June 12 in Tulln, Austria to Marie and Adolf Schiele.

1901

Schiele moves to a town called Krems, about twenty-five miles away, for secondary school. Schiele later drops out and finishes the year with a private tutor at home with his family.

1904

The Schiele family visits relatives in Klosterneuburg and see Marie’s birthplace of Krumau. This town leaves a distinct impression on Schiele due to its Medieval architecture.

Schiele’s father dies of syphilis.

1906

In the fall, Schiele begins school at Vienna’s Academy of Fine Arts after passing the rigorous entrance exams.

1907

Schiele meets fellow artist Egon Schiele, who happily takes him under his wing as a mentor; paints Landscape of Lower Austria.

1908

Schiele’s uncle, Leopold Czihaczek, helps him find a studio on the Kurzbauergasse. Schiele completes Standing Girl in Plaid Garment.

Schiele is included in a small exhibition organized by Strauch in Klosterneuburg; the boy's work catches the eye of Heinrich Benesch, a railroad inspector of modest means who will later become one of the artist’s most loyal supporters.

1909

In April, Schiele and a group of Academy classmates send a formal letter of protest, very much echoing the original complaints of the Vienna Secessionists, to Professor Griepenkerl. They accuse the professor of stifling their creativity and of holding back Austria’s cultural advancement. Shortly thereafter, Schiele makes his Vienna exhibition debut at a second “Kunstschau.”

In June, Schiele and his artist friends, dubbing themselves the Neukunstgruppe [New Art Group], agree to a joint exhibition at the Kunstsalon Pisko in December. Schiele withdraws from the Academy of Fine Arts at the end of the spring term.

1910

Schiele meets Arthur Roessler, who supports the artist as a collector, quasi-business manager, and as critic for the Socialist Arbeiter Zeitung (Workers’ Newspaper).

Completes Seated Female Nude with Raised Arm and Seated Male Nude (Self-Portrait) among other works.

Schiele withdraws from the Neukunstgruppe he helped found due to a rivalry with another artist in the group. This, coupled with his leaving the Vienna Academy, causes his uncle to withhold financial support and suggest Schiele enlist in the army.

1911

In May, Schiele moves to Krumau with his lover and foremost model, Walburga ("Wally") Neuzil, until they are kicked out by the town’s residents in August.

Schiele completes The Self-Seers II (Death and Man).

1912

In April, Schiele is arrested and jailed on the charges of kidnapping, statutory rape, and public immorality with Tatjana Georgette Anna von Mossig, a local fourteen-year-old model and retired naval officer’s daughter. Tatjana had run away to be with Schiele and Neuzil for a week. The first two charges are eventually dropped, but Schiele spends twenty-four days in jail for public immorality on accounts that children have been seen indecently in his studio.

In May, Schiele returns to Vienna; in October, he rents a studio at Hietzinger Hauptstrasse 101, which he will retain for the rest of his life.

He exhibits alongside the radical Blaue Reiter group at Goltz's Munich gallery, with the Sonderbund in Cologne, at the Hagenbund in Vienna, and he also participates in a two-person show at the prestigious Folkwang Museum in Hagen. Schiele acquires two important new patrons: the Viennese innkeeper Franz Hauer and the wealthy industrialist August Lederer.

1914

In December, Schiele has his second one-man show in Vienna, at the gallery of Guido Arnot; completes the work Young Mother.

1915

Schiele marries Edith Harms on June 17, then reports to basic training in Prague four days later to fight in World War I.

Completes the work Seated Couple (Egon and Edith Schiele) while working an office job during his military service.

1916

Schiele gets some exposure during his time in service when the left-wing Berlin periodical Die Aktion publishes a special "Egon Schiele issue".

1917

Schiele gathers contributions for a "War Exhibition," which opens at the Army Museum in Vienna and subsequently travels in modified form to Holland, Sweden, and Denmark.

Completes Reclining Female Nude.

1918

After Schiele’s death, Schiele is seen as Austria’s leading artist. His career soars as he is busy organizing exhibitions and working constantly.

Edith, six months pregnant, contracts the deadly Spanish Flu virus and dies on October 28. Schiele succumbs to the virus just three days later and dies on October 31.