Kummernis (Sorrow)

Art Historical Context

Egon Schiele's *Kummernis (S)*, a poignant drypoint print published in 1922, the raw emotional intensity that defined the Austrian Expressionist's brief but brilliant career. Schiele, a protégé of Gustav Klimt and key figure in the Vienna Secession, often depicted distorted figures wracked by inner turmoil, reflecting the anxieties of early 20th-century Europe amid World War I and personal hardships. Tragically, Schiele died in 8 at age 28 from the Spanish flu pandemic, making this posthumous publication a testament to his enduring legacy. Rendered in drypoint—a direct intaglio technique wher...

About the Artist

Egon Schiele · 1890–1918

Egon Schiele (1890-1918) stands as one of the most provocative and psychologically penetrating artists of early twentieth-century European modernism. Born in Tulln an der Donau, Austria-Hungary, Schiele's brief but intensely productive life ended tragically at age twenty-eight when he and his pregnant wife Edith succumbed to the Spanish flu pandemic, mere days apart. Despite his truncated career, ...