Explore the Relationship with Neuzil of this artwork.
In 1911, Schiele met the seventeen-year-old Walburga (Wally) Neuzil, who moved in with him in Vienna and modeled for him. Very little is known of her; she may have previously modelled for Gustav Klimt and might have been one of Klimt's mistresses. Schiele and Wally wanted to escape what they perceived as the claustrophobic Viennese milieu, and went to the small town of Český Krumlov (Krumau) in southern Bohemia. Although Krumau was the birthplace of Schiele's mother (and is today the site of a Schiele museum), he and his lover were driven out of the town by the residents, who strongly disapproved of their lifestyle which included his alleged employment of the town's teenage girls as models.
Together they moved to Neulengbach, 35 km west of Vienna, seeking inspirational surroundings and an inexpensive studio in which to work. As it was in the capital, Schiele's studio became a gathering place for Neulengbach's delinquent children. Schiele's way of life aroused much animosity among the town's inhabitants, and in April 1912 he was arrested and jailed for seducing a young girl below the age of consent, and more than a hundred of his drawings were seized as pornographic. Although the charge of seduction was dropped, he was found guilty of exhibiting erotic drawings in a place accessible to children and sentenced to 3 additional days in jail besides the 3 weeks already served.
In 1914, Schiele had a studio in the Viennese suburb of Hietzing. Across the street was a middle-class, Protestant locksmith family which included the sisters Edith and Adéle Harms. In February 1915, Schiele wrote a note to a friend stating: "I intend to get married, advantageously. Not to Wally." When he told Wally, she left him immediately and never saw him again. Around this time he painted Death and the Maiden, where Wally's portrait is based on a previous work, but Schiele's is new. Schiele and Edith Harms did get married on 17 June 1915.
After leaving Schiele, Neuzil trained as a nurse and worked at a military hospital in Vienna. In 1917 she was working in the Dalmatia region of Croatia, and died there on December 25 of scarlet fever.
Český Krumlov Bohemia Croatia left Dalmatia Hietzing Neulengbach Gustav Klimt Vienna Krumau