Major Works

Egon was a very controversial figure within the art world that attracted not only criticism but prosecution for his obscene pictures. He made eroticism as one of his main fronts and made art that seemingly supplied drawings to erotic collectors that he was briefly jailed for obscene pictures that he sold to unscrupulous individuals. He was also attacked for his interest in young girls who at the time he used as models. These young girls were runaway’s who were looking for refuge which they found in his studio. He drew them as they lay resting and doing plainly everything they wanted to as if they were animals being documented through his drawings. He got into trouble again and again for this inclination and he wasn’t only interested in them but anybody he might get in contact with. He was also obsessed heavily with himself that he drew several self portraits of himself.

In 1911, he met a seventeen year old teen named, Wally Neuzil who was to become one of his models for some of his best works and who also lived with him for a while in his home. Not much is known a bout her except for the fact that she has been known to model for Klimt one of Egon’s mentors and true friend. From then on, he moved around a lot to avoid the prosecution he has suffered so much from in Vienna. He was again arrested for producing pornographic pictures with more than a hundred of them seized from his studio. He was charged of having seduced a girl to model for him who was under aged for use in the production of his drawings. The charges were dropped but he was still charged with the display of pornographic material in a place where children could have access or are able to view them.

The coming of the year 1915, was a turning point in Egon’s life for she met two middleclass girls who live opposite his studio. Edith and Adele were daughters of a locksmith to whom he was both attracted to but settled for Edith. Wally, however enigmatic the young lady she is, was dismissed without much accord and his focus now turned to his newly found love in Edith.  Her dismay led to her joining the red cross where she died of scarlet fever in a military hospital near Split in Dalmatia. Edith and Egon were married in 1915 despite her family’s strong opposition to her union with the artist.