Style Imitating Art | “Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka” by Egon Schiele

Per the usual, I am late. I am late. I am late. I feel like I am always late lately. And I have absolutely no excuse for it. But here I am late again anyway.

About Style Imitating Art

Style Imitating Art is hosted by Salazar of 14 Shades of Grey, Shelbee of Shelbee on the Edge, and Marsha of Marsha in the Middle. Style Imitating Art challenges us to draw style inspiration from pieces of art. Every other Monday, one of the hosts, acting as presenter, selects an inspiration image that they will each post on their blogs. The following Monday, each host shares her art inspired outfit. Participants are invited to submit their art inspired outfits to the presenter by 10:00 p.m. EST on the Tuesday following the hosts’ art inspired outfit posts. The following day, Wednesday, the presenter will share all of the submissions on her blog.

You don’t have to be a blogger to join either! In fact, you don’t even have to join but you can still use the art to inspire an outfit just for the sake of trying something different. If you want to share your inspired outfit, we invite you do so on Instagram or any other social media platform that you prefer. Just be sure to tag Salazar, Shelbee, or Marsha or use #TeamLOTSStyle and #StyleImitatingArt so the hosts know you have joined. Go have some fun in your closets and join the SIA challenge next week!

This Week’s Presenter

Salazar chose this week’s artwork with Valentine’s Day in mind. With the weather slowly warming up where she lives, she was feeling inspired by the light pinks and muted colors of this painting. As I mentioned last week, the weather is not warming up where I live. Well, maybe a little. But there is still so much snow on the ground and more forecasted by the weekend. At this rate, I might not see green grass before May.

Now you might be wondering why there is so much green grass in my photos. I’ll tell you below in the section about my outfit.

The Artwork

“Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka” by Egon Schiele

About the Artist: Egon Schiele

Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter born on June 12, 1890, to Adolf Schiele, a railway station master, and Marie Soukup Schiele from the Czech Republic. Prior to Egon’s birth, his mother had three still-births which were all sons. In addition to Egon, there were three daughters, Elvira, Melanie, and Gertrude. However, Elvira died in childhood due to congenital syphilis inherited from her father who contracted it visiting a brothel on his honeymoon when his young wife fled the bedchamber in fear of consummation.

As a child, young Egon was fascinated by trains and kept sketchbooks with drawings of locomotives which his father destroyed claiming that drawing was a detriment to his son’s schoolwork. Ironically, his father also shared an interest in drawing. But as his syphilis progressed, he was prone to mental confusion and fits of rage.

When Egon was 11 years old, he moved to a neighboring city to attend secondary school. While at school, he was shy and reserved and performed poorly in all of his subjects except for athletics and drawing. Most regarded him as a strange child which was exacerbated when he expressed a sexual interest in his younger sister Gertrude.

The Schiele family was moderately wealthy because Adolf had invested in railway stocks during his employment with the railways. During one fit of insanity caused by his syphilis, Adolf burned all of his railway stocks. Then he died when his son Egon was just 14 years old, leaving the family impoverished and financially reliant on Egon’s older sister Melanie who worked as a ticket clerk in a local railway office. After Adolf’s death, Egon and sister Gertrude became wards of their paternal aunt Maria and her husband, Leopold Czihaczek, who was also a railway official.

Uncle Leo apparently wanted Egon to continue the family tradition of working for the railways but he also recognized his nephew’s artistic talents and agreed to hire a tutor. Eventually, Uncle Leo renounced his guardianship of Egon, who then became dependent on his mother to continue his art studies. After sister Melanie objected to this expense, it caused a rift in the family. In 1906, Egon began attending art schools in Vienna but left after three years because he was dissatisfied and frustrated with the strict doctrine and excessively conservative style of his art teachers.

After leaving school, Egon and other dissatisfied students founded the Neukunstgruppe (“New Art Group”) in 1909 which led to his first exhibition that same year. Egon Schiele quickly emerged as an early exponent of the Expressionist movement and became well know for the intensity and raw sexuality of his paintings.

Paving his way as a successful artist, Egon Schiele’s career was cut short in 1918 by the Spanish flu pandemic. His wife Edith, who was six months pregnant, died of the Spanish flu on October 28, 1918. Schiele died just three days after his wife on October 31, 1918. He was 28 years old.

In his very short career, Egon Schiele was a prolific artist, creating over 300 oil paintings and thousands of works on paper. He continued drawing after his wife died and in those final three days he created his last known work which was a portrait of his wife.

About the Artwork: “Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka”

“Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka” is an oil on canvas which Schiele painted in Vienna in 1909. It measures 110.2 x 100 cm (43.4 x 39.4 in) and is currently part of a private collection.

Anton Peschka was a fellow art student who studied with Egon in Vienna. In 1914, Anton married Egon’s younger sister Gertrude. Peschka specialized in painting landscapes and nudes and was heavily influenced by his brother-in-law’s work.

Resources:

• Wikipedia: Egon Schiele
• WikiArt: Portrait of the Painter Anton Peschka by Egon Schiele

About My Outfit

So why is there so much visible green grass in my photos when I claim to be buried in feet of snow? Well, that’s easy. Because I cheated!

Back in September, I had photographed this outfit for a Songful Style challenge but then I decided to wear something different for that post (very similar but with a different blazer and different boots). And then these photos were sort of forgotten. Until Salazar shared her art prompt with us. The color of Anton’s jacket as well as the square pattern on his chair reminded me of this pink plaid blazer. That is when I remembered these outfit photographs which eased my burden of trying to take outdoor photos in a brutally snowy landscape.

With my pink plaid blazer, I wore my gold corset, black leggings, brown fringed boots, a black lace extender, and gold statement jewelry. While I did not style this outfit with the painting in mind, all of the colors and specific details really seemed to represent the painting quite well. In fact, I don’t know that I could have created a better outfit if I had actually tried. Instead, I was blessed with serendipity and I took full advantage of it!

What do you think? Did these serendipitous photos serve me well for this challenge?

Be sure to check out how Salazar and Marsha have styled their outfits inspired by this portrait. If you would like to participate in this challenge and have your photo included in Salazar’s round up post on Wednesday, February 26, 2025, be sure to email your photos to her at 14shadesofgreyblog@gmail.com by Tuesday, February 25, 2025, by 10:00 p.m. EST. I am excited to see what you all wear!

Happy styling! 

Keeping it on the edge, 

Shelbee

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