Woman Buttoning Her Shoes (recto); Study for Reclining Nude with Arms Raised (verso)

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, he produced over three hundred oil paintings and several thousand works on paper, leaving an indelible mark on Expressionist art.