Egon Schiele

Born in Austria in 1890, Schiele found his sharpest influence in Gustav Klimt, who mentored the younger artist as he broke from decorative tradition. What emerged was Expressionism at its most uncomfortable: contorted figures, unsparing self-portraits, an intensity that turned the body into a site of exposure rather than beauty. His drawings and paintings carried a psychological rawness and explicit sexuality that marked him as singular. He died at twenty-eight on 31 October 1918, leaving a body of work that remains difficult to look away from.