Egon Schiele is known above all through his expressionist paintings and drawings from between 1910 and 1913/14, in which he expressed the inner turmoil of an entire generation in his depictions of the human figure. His later works after 1914, which differ markedly from his earlier ones, are less well known. His lines became more measured, flowing, and organic, and his figures filled out and were more realistic. Personal and historical events from 1914 – the outbreak of war, his marriage to Edith Harms, and the tedium of army life – clearly had a profound effect on his artistic output.

Among other things, Edith Schiele's almost unknown diary (1915–1918), in which she recorded her thoughts and feelings during the difficult times, is published in full.