Schiele's decadence over time
Schiele, whose most well-known portraits resemble concentration camp victims, started off with conventional but very expressive portraits.
Also, almost all the portraits of his wife (those that don't include him or some young child) are the least disfigured.
I think time, and affection, cleansed some of the turmoil that he must have been feeling when he painted the majority of his work.
And ultimately, I have always thought that these German Expressionists, just after the First World War, and just before the Second, were full of self-pity and self-aggrandizement. Instead of finding solutions for their deteriorating Germany, they preferred to wallow in their victimhood.
No wonder Hitler found it so easy to manipulate them.
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Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek, Schiele, 1907
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Portrait of Edith, Schiele, 1915
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Seated Woman, Schiele, 1918
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Forest with Sunlit Clearing in the Background, Schiele, 1907
Although one of his earliest works, it looks like with Forest, Schiele was really trying to look beyond the dark forest (of the present) into the clearing of the future.
It is too bad that he never continued with this vision.
