Egon Schiele was born on June 12, 1890, to Marie and Adolf Eugen Schiele in Tulln, a small town on the Danube in Lower Austria. Adolf was a high official of the Royal Empirial Railway Company. Of the six children of the marriage, only three survived infancy. Egon grew up alongside his sisters Melanie and Gertrude.
             Schiele attended elementary school at Tulln and then transferred to the Real-Gymnasium in Krems. After some time, his lack of improvement there led his father to move him again to the Landes-Real-und Ober-Gymnasium in Klosterneuburg. Schiele's childhood was overshadowed by the illness of his father, who died on New Year's Day in 1905 of syphilis. Egon's uncle and godfather became his new guardian. At his second high school, Schiele became friends with his drawing instructor, Ludwig Karl Strauch. Strauch gave Schiele private lessons; as well as, lessons with the Klosterneuburg painter Max Kahrer. Between 1905 and 1907, Schiele created over a hundred paintings, consisting mostly of landscapes. He was once again struggling in school and was forced to withdraw at an early age. In late October of 1906, Schiele took the entrance examination for the Akademie der bildenden Kuenste in Vienna. The results were successful and Schiele began taking a general painting class taught by Christian Griepenkerl, one of the prime exponents of the academic Ringstrasse school of Viennese painting.
             It was inevitable that it would not be long before Schiele started to have problems with the Akademie. He disliked more and more the old-fashion teaching methods. With his fellow artists and classmates including, Anton Peschka, Anton Faistauer, Franz Wiegele, Hans Massmann, Karl Zakovsek he helps start the Neukunstgruppe. They issued a letter of protest against Christian Gripenkerl, the painting instructor. After three and a half years of art education, at the age of 18, Schiele with the rest of the Neukunstgruppe is forced to leave t...