The Viennese artists' association Hagenbund had a decisive influence on the art scene between 1900 and 1938, not only at home but also in Central Europe. It united different art movements under its umbrella and introduced a new creative dynamic at a time when the Vienna Secession was slowly losing its impact after 1918. The liberal attitude of the Hagenbund artists was revolutionary. The Hagenbund represented an early network of European art with a regional focus on Vienna. In 1907 a first joint exhibition featured Hungarian, Polish, Czech and German artists. This volume analyses for the first time in an art-historical context, the network of relationships between artists in Vienna, Prague, Munich, Budapest, Lviv, Krakow and Trieste. The members of the Hagenbund included Oskar Laske, Carry Hauser and Otto Rudolf Schatz. They welcomed illustrious guests such as Anton Faistauer, Oskar Kokoschka and Anton Kolig. The early network established an extremely open approach to exhibitions and a lively intercommunication between European artists.

This book traces Schiele's development as a portraitist through four principal chronological phases, from 1906 to 1918. Starting with the artist's rigorous training at the Vienna Academy, it chronicles Schiele's eventual break with academia and the emergence of his Expressionistic style. As Schiele honed his technical abilities, he gathered a coterie of patrons-many of whom he immortalized on canvas-and developed a tendency toward realism and introspection. Throughout his career Schiele tested the boundaries of traditional portraiture. Confrontational, explicitly erotic, and largely devoid of props or scenery, Schiele's portraits are seminal works of originality and deep empathy with the human condition. This volume also offers a close examination of Schiele's self-portraits and his relationship with Gustav Klimt, Schiele's gestic language in the context of contemporaneous photography and the silent film, as well as brief biographies of Schiele's subjects and transcriptions of illuminating letters pertaining to his life and work.