After invoking the wrath of the citizens of Krumau, the Edge of Town was as far as Egon Schiele was allowed to go.

It may surprise you that master-of-all-nudes Egon Schiele painted more than just sprawled-out naked ladies. However, despite its deceptively vanilla appearance, this humble painting of a colorful town hides the story of a great love affair with (no surprises here) a naked lady. 

Schiele met seventeen-year-old Walburga Neuzil in 1911. She’s a pretty mysterious babe but we know that she regularly modeled for him and that she had previously modeled for Gustav Klimt (and may have been one of Klimt’s mistresses as well). Clearly in hot demand…and also a minor. Great going, pervs.

Schiele and Walburga wanted a nice romantic getaway and a break from Vienna, so they headed over to the small town of Krumau in the South Bohemian region of the Czech Republic. This medieval town was where Schiele’s mother was born, which unfortunately didn’t stop the villagers from eventually driving Egon and Wally out. The town’s residents didn’t approve of their unconventional relationship and were not very impressed with Schiele’s unsavory habit of hiring teenage girls as nude models.

In fact, after ‘seducing’ a young girl, Schiele was thrown in prison. We’re not sure how he got out but he headed for the hills immediately. You’ve got to wonder what Walburga thought of all of this controversy-- maybe she was just too taken by the idyllic beauty of Krumau to object to Schiele’s poor behavior. In any case, Egon Schiele must have eventually redeemed himself in the eyes of the city, which now boasts the world’s only museum dedicated to the audience. But we say: once a pedophile, always a pedophile.