Portrait of Leopold Czihaczek, 1907

After Adolf Schiele’s (1850–1905) untimely death, Czihaczek had taken over joint guardianship for Egon and his younger sister Gertrude (1894–1981). Like Schiele’s father, Czihaczek was a high-ranking railway official who wanted his ward to uphold the family tradition and to study engineering. Though Czihaczek did not approve of Schiele’s aspirations to become an artist, he took young Egon in when he came to Vienna in 1906 to study at the art Academy. During his studies between 1906 and 1909, Schiele created several portraits of his uncle, among them Leopold Czihaczek at the Piano.