Between Ruin and Renewal: Egon Schiele's Landscapes

Between Ruin and Renewal: Egon Schiele's Landscapes by Kimberly A. Smith. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780300097481.

The Austrian artist Egon Schiele (1890--1918) is renowned for his intensely confrontational portraits, self-portraits, erotic images, and allegories. What is less well known today is that Schiele was also a talented and prolific landscape painter. These fascinating landscapes, however, are now gaining the attention of scholars and the art world. Indeed, Landscape at Krumau (1916) by Schiele recently sold at auction in London for about $20 million. In this beautifully illustrated and engaging book, Kimberly A. Smith provides the first full examination of Schieles landscapes and townscapes, offering a new approach to and insights into the artists work and motivations. Diverging from the conventional interpretation that Schieles paintings are revelations of the artists psychology and emotional experience, Smith focuses instead on how his landscapes relate to the political, social, and historical conditions in early-twentieth-century Austria. As Smith argues, Schieles extraordinary landscape paintings are marked by a dialectic of resignation and renewal and convey the character of Viennese modernism itself.