Time for an older favourite now. Usually I stick to contemporary artists, but this time we're going back into the past with good old Egon Schiele, the Austrian master of the figurative. Too bad he died young for the quality of his line, and his choice of subject was without peer. Even today, with the mass of commercial artists who have followed in his wake, only a very few have ever come close to the economy of accuracy and total honesty that Schiele had. You only have to look at the above image, the line across the belly and the deliniation of the rib cage, the shape of the muscle's in the thighs, all perfectly described with the barest minimum of effort to appreciate Egon Schiele's genius.
The strange thing is, there is nothing especially difficult in what Schiele did, people draw like this every day in life drawing classes now, and it was social convention which had to be broken down, not artistic convention. Schiele seperates himself from the mob however, even today, by the finished quality of his work. Even with the barest minimum of detail he manages to describe his subject perfectly leaving a beautiful rendition of the human form that would grace the wall of any establishment that had the courage to display it.
In the image below, Schiele shows he was not restrained by any desire to replicate the human form exacty though. He drew what he saw and he wasn't afraid of exageration, neither in form or colour. If only I could find that courage!
And if any one is offended by these images, then I suggest you broaden your mind and accept the human body for the form of beauty and desire it surely is.
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