The Flames
This is a fictional biography, of sorts, of the Austrian artist Egon Schiele, told from the perspective of four of the key women in the life of this remarkable, talented but tragically shorted-lived man who had a key influence upon him and his work.
There is Adele Harms, who became besotted with the artist in Vienna, and the tale includes Schiele’s younger sister Gertrude and their traumatic upbringing in provincial Austria, with a mentally unstable father. Vally Neuzil is Schiele’s flame-haired model who appeared in some of his more notorious works. And Edith, Adele’s sister, who became Egon’s wife. Schiele’s artistic talent was recognized within the artistic community in Austria and Europe, but within provincial bourgeois society, he was initially seen as little more than a pornographer who seduced and ruined the reputation of women and younger girls who sat for his perceived corrupt works. The writer examines the role of these females, and the limitations that society imposed upon them.
This modular approach does not always make for a greatly joined up read; rather, it’s sometimes a series of loosely interconnected narratives, with the common denominator being Egon Schiele, and the descriptive drive can be a little flat at times. The novel is well-researched, however, and the author has an impressive knowledge of Schiele, his works and his milieu, both artistic and historical. It is an engaging read, and while Sophie Haydock admits to using some creative licence when facts are thin on the ground, it is still a most impressive work of historical fiction.
