Lovemaking
1915
Egon Schiele created this intense piece in 1915, the same year he married his wife Edith, and you can feel the urgency in every line. The figures are twisted together in a knot of limbs, with the woman's hand reaching up like a claw—a signature Schiele move that makes intimacy look almost painful or desperate. He used clashing sickly greens and burnt oranges to strip away romantic idealism, giving us a raw, Expressionist look at human connection. It’s a powerful work from a turbulent year, painted just before he was drafted into the army for World War I.