His drawings and watercolors are considered masterpieces of the 20th century. The painter and draftsman Egon Schiele (1890-1918) broke away from the pleasing decorative style of Austrian Art Nouveau through expressive tendencies and developed an incomparably expressive-ornamental line language in portraits, landscapes, and what were then highly scandalous drastic erotic nudes. Because of this, he even spent some time in prison. As an early genius of the Vienna art scene, Schiele founded the Neukunstgruppe, worked for the Wiener Werkstätten, and contributed to the magazine Aktion. In 1918, shortly after his explosive artistic breakthrough, he tragically died at the young age of 28 from the Spanish flu.