Egon SchieleAustrian, 1890–1918Sonnenblumen I
May one see it?
Unknown: the museum keeps its counsel
Belvedere
Vienna, Austria
The owner is known. Whether it is on view today, the museum does not say, and we were not trained to guess.
- In this state since
- Sep 27, 2026
- Source
- The museum's own collection data
About the painting
Verwelkt und ausgedörrt hängen die braunen Blätter herab. Mächtige Blütenköpfe blicken kraftlos auf ihre Sprösslinge, doch können selbst die kleinen frischen Blüten den Verfall nicht mehr aufhalten. Wie Gustav Klimt hat sich wohl auch Schiele das Faible für Sonnenblumen von Vincent van Gogh abgeschaut. Allerdings bricht der junge Maler radikal mit Klimts dekorativem Erbe. Stattdessen bestimmen Verrenkungen, Verzerrungen und Deformationen die expressive Ausdrucksform seiner Werke. So werden sogar einzelne Sonnenblumen zum Spiegelbild von seelischer Zerrissenheit und zum Symbol für alles Vergängliche. „Ich bin Mensch. Ich liebe den Tod und ich liebe das Leben“, erklärt er, Schiele, selbst einmal.
Belvedere
Particulars
Sources
- Belvedere: the museum's own open data · fetched 3 days ago
- Image: Belvedere — CC BY-SA 4.0
Meanwhile, in the life of Egon Schiele
The whole life1909
Leaves the Academy and founds the Neukunstgruppe
In 1909, after completing his third year, Schiele left the Academy and, with other dissatisfied students, founded the Neukunstgruppe (“New Art Group”). Imitations of Klimt and Oskar Kokoschka are visible in his first works, but he soon evolved his own distinctive style.
1909
The 1909 Kunstschau: beside Klimt and Van Gogh
In 1909 Klimt invited Schiele to exhibit some of his work at the Vienna Kunstschau, where he encountered the work of Edvard Munch, Jan Toorop, Vincent van Gogh and others.
1910
Experiments with the nude and the birth of a style
In 1910 Schiele began experimenting with nudes, and within a year a definitive style emerged: emaciated, sickly-coloured figures, often with strong sexual overtones. He also began painting and drawing children.
1911
Meets Wally Neuzil
In 1911, at the age of twenty-one, Schiele met the seventeen-year-old Wally Neuzil, who lived with him in Vienna and served as a model for some of his most striking paintings; she had previously modelled for Klimt.
1911
Escape from Viennese bohemia to Krumau
Wanting to escape what they perceived as the claustrophobic Viennese milieu, Schiele and Wally went to Krumau in southern Bohemia, the birthplace of his mother; but the residents, strongly disapproving of their bohemian lifestyle, including his alleged employment of the town’s teenage girls as models, drove the couple out of the town.
April 1912
Arrest, jail and trial in Neulengbach
In April 1912 Schiele was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and seducing a girl of thirteen: the police seized more than a hundred drawings from his studio that they considered pornographic, and while awaiting trial in custody he made a series of paintings of his jail cell. The charges were dropped, but he was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children: the judge burned one of the drawings over a candle flame, the 21 days already spent in custody were counted and a further three days’ imprisonment were added.
