Melancholy and Provocation. The Egon Schiele Project

100 works by Schiele - from superb paintings to works on paper - can be seen at the Leopold Museum. At the centre of the exhibition is the early work of the artist, who died in 1918 aged just 28 years.  “Melancholy and Provocation” refers primarily to the early oeuvre of the artist. The works, which he created from 1910 when he was only 20 years old, are characterized by a strong sense of melancholy and sadness, but also by his fascination with the unusual and the ecstatic. His first solo exhibition, held at the art salon Miethke in 1911, was dominated by elegiac works, revealing a dark and mystical colouring, a melancholy subject matter as well as the artist’s radically physical manner of self-portrayal.