Egon Schiele’s ( 1890 – 1918 ) work is noted for its intensity and the large number of portraits and self-portraits he produced. The twisted body shapes that characterize Schiele’s paintings and drawings make the artist a notable proponent of Expressionism. The human form and human sexuality both flourish throughout his works. This being counter-cultural for the setting of their creation and their first exhibitions, left many of the time and place to find his works disturbing and calamitous. Of course, even today Egon Schiele is known for being grotesque, erotic, pornographic, and disturbing in his focus on sex, death and discovery.
Schiele was greatly influenced by Gustav Klimt, his mentor and interested advocate. With Klimt’s help and Schiele’s great talent, arrogance, explicit works and advantageous exhibitions, Egon was quickly regarded and respected in the art world.
Egon Schiele’s oil on canvas entitled “The Family” (Above, 1918, Vienna) was not created until he was near the end of his life. It depicts three figures in an empty dark space. The three figures tenably represent the family that will never be had by Schiele.
Despite some opposition from the Harms family, Egon Schiele and Edith Harms, a former model and a neighbor to his studio, were married on June 17, 1915, the anniversary of the wedding of Schiele’s parents. In October of 1918, Edith was six months pregnant and tragically contracted the same Spanish flu that had claimed the lives of more than 20,000,000 people. Egon died three days after his wife, he was 28. During these three days, Egon drew a few sketches of Edith; these were his last works.
“The Family”, one of Schiele’s last pieces, portraits Egon in a sensitive light, without the potent brutality and arrogance of his other works. Perhaps suggesting a calmer more accepting person. Egon is looking, wide-eyed, directly at the viewer. The expression on his face, his stature and this eye contact seem to be communicating a message that is unique to his works. A certain reciprocity of humanness seems to be communicated, as if Egon is suggesting that, “this is my life, I am human and this is life” in a matter-of-fact style. The dark value of his skin and the negative space around him may suggest he has a dark understanding of the world around him, and perhaps of himself; or perhaps he feels that he has a complete lack of understanding of life, as if he is blind; I honestly am not completely sure, but it is quite interesting in the least. Below him, his wife Edith sits while staring at the floor to her left with a despondent attitude. The negative space surrounding her is full of chaotic, dark valued colors that are, yet, of lighter value than Egon’s negative space. Perhaps she provides Egon with more hope or light while simultaneously being unpredictable, chaotic; perhaps he feels that she has a greater understanding of life around him; perhaps the chaotic dark valued colors are vague depictions of his past lovers (i.e. Wally and Gertie). At the bottom of the chalice or pillar that they form is the never-to-be-born baby. The baby has the lightest value of all with the lightest negative space as well. Perhaps the baby brings the most light or life to the never-to-be-had family. Bits of varied colors also surround the baby while bits of white surround Edith; I still search for what this is saying. Another interesting detail is the connection of the baby’s eyes and Edith’s eyes, the triangle that this movement creates and what are they looking at?
This picture is covered in triangles. The focus and central subject is Edith. Yet the biggest movement sends me to the baby while being in juxtaposition to the big, bright, wide-eyes of Egon in the countering northern hemisphere of the painting. The dark negative space borders the subject(s) and brings them out at the viewer. The outside border consists of contrasting, slightly lighter values, vertical moving chaotic colors, and a lighter valued ground.
Another interesting attribute of this paining is the immediate background for Edith and the baby. The background for the baby’s space is seemingly a blanket consisting of a variety of colors. The background for Edith’s space is seemingly a plain white blanket. As to what this is suggesting, I am currently baffled by. Oddly enough though, in searching for pictures of Edith by Schiele I have yet to find another of her nude. What is this all saying?
Perhaps, in experiencing the deaths that had surrounded Egon, and in experiencing a soon-to-be-had family, he began to realize his own humanness and mortality, as well as the like humanness around him. Perhaps this understanding is what gave life to such a painting that depicts hope, matter-of-factness, honesty, reciprocity of the human nature, despondency, colors, darkness, and etcetera; which encapsulates life as it encapsulates this painting.
To know that this paining was created shortly before the death of Edith, Egon and the unborn child leaves me with an understanding of the tragedy of life that I feel when I am grasped by this painting. The beauty and tragedy.
Okay, also note the interesting happenings that are going on in this negative space behind the family. Something that is not prevalent in a lot of his works is variability in the negative space; is this painting contrasting in more than just the depiction of himself? Also, it is a rarity for his paintings to have three human subjects, to add to the contrast. And; the dark background is something that is also rare in his works. Of course, there is another 1918 portrait of Edith in which the background is dark; perhaps 1918 consisted of a season of dark backgrounds and surreptitious meaning.
Gustav Klimt, a major influencer of Egon, used darkness, especially in background, to depict death/dying. Color and brightness was used to depict life. And look at “The Family” in juxtaposition to Klimt’s “Death and Life” and the similarities/contrasts being had. Ah – Ha; further, look at Schiele’s “Death and the Maiden” and the similarities/contrasts it has with “The Family”. And; with that look at the darkness/lightness competition, Egon’s hand in correlation with “death’s” hand, the position and existence of the white sheet in both paintings, the look of melancholia in both paintings. Also, “Death and the Maiden” came about shortly after Schiele’s split up with his former lover, Wally, and his marriage to Edith; what does that painting say about that specific time in his life and what does “The Family” maybe say about the respective point of life that he is in?
Maybe “the family” plays off of “death and life” and “death and the maiden”. Regardless, this is all striking and very stimulatingly interesting. There is a great deal to think about.
