Egon Schiele's Portraits

Egon Schiele was a meteor that flashed across the galaxy of Viennese art at the beginning of the last century. Although he lived only twenty-eight years-dying quite suddenly of influenza in 1918 just as World War I came to an end-he left a stunning pictorial oeuvre. Schiele's obsession with sexuality, his own and that of others, made him at once a voyeur and a participant in that sexual imperative which Freud was simultaneously plumbing with such unsettling results. The disturbing revelations of Schiele's unmasking portraiture and of the new science of psychology disclosed a collective cultural anxiety during the last years of the crumbling Austrian empire. As a seer into the souls of his sitters, Schiele redefined portraiture in the age of Angst. Alessandra Comini is University Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University, where she taught for thirty-one years after having served on the faculty at Columbia University for ten years. She is the author of eight books, one of which, "Egon Schiele's Portraits," was nominated for the National Book Award. The Republic of Austria extended her its Grand Decoration of Honor in 1990. This is her third book on the artist; she has also published "Schiele in Prison," an extended essay and English translation of the 1912, makeshift diary Schiele kept during his twenty-four days in a provincial prison cell-a forgotten cell which she discovered and photographed in 1963. The cell is now part of a Schiele Museum in the village of Neulengbach. Her 2014 Megan Crespi mystery novel, "Killing for Klimt," is followed by "The Schiele Slaughters."

An introduction and compilation of the portraits by Egon Schiele with extensive illustrations.
Alessandra Comini is University Distinguished Professor of Art History Emerita at Southern Methodist University, where she taught for thirty-one years after having served on the faculty at Columbia University for ten years. She is the author of eight books, one of which, Egon Schiele's Portraits, was nominated for the National Book Award. The Republic of Austria extended her its Grand Decoration of Honor in 1990. This is her third book on the artist; she has also published Schiele in Prison, an extended essay and English translation of the 1912, makeshift diary Schiele kept during his twenty-four days in a provincial prison cell-a forgotten cell which she discovered and photographed in 1963. The cell is now part of a Schiele Museum in the village of Neulengbach. Her 2014 Megan Crespi mystery novel, "Killing for Klimt," is followed by "The Schiele Slaughters."

"The best book on the Viennese wunderkind so far and maybe forever." --John Canaday in The New York Times Book Review

"...Alessandra Comini's Egon Schiele's Portraits remains unsurpassed as a reliable, readable and insightful introduction to the erotically tortured, yet refined art of this Viennese Expressionist artist. Comini introduced Schiele to the world outside Austria and Germany with her exemplary scholarly studies which were replete with extensive documentation, historic photographs, and major discoveries. The author masterfully situates Schiele in the context of the Vienna of the aged Emperor Franz Joseph, of Sigmund Freud, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka and Arnold Schoenberg. With a skill few other art historians can match, she weaves a compelling narrative around the persona and psyche of the artist, his Viennese milieu, and his intensely personal, psychologically compelling imagery. A remarkable new introduction to this new edition now also offers an intriguing, frequently witty account of post-Schiele happenings. Today this book continues to serve as a knowledgeable and trusted guide for all of us who know or who are discovering the irresistible, angst-ridden company of Egon Schiele's passionate art and his all too brief life." --Reinhold Heller, Professor of Art History and of Germanic Studies emeritus, The University of Chicago

"Alessandra Comini brings a keen eye and passionate spirit of engagement to the art of Egon Schiele. Her original research, scholarly insights, with an up-to-date lively introduction, illuminate the work and life of this quintessential Austrian artist." --Renée Price, Director, Neue Galerie New York, Museum for German and Austrian Art