Nude in Garden

Richard Gerstl ([ˈʁɪçaʁt ɡɛʁstl̩]; 14 September 1883 – 4 November 1908) was an Austrian painter and draughtsman known for his expressive psychologically insightful portraits, his lack of critical acclaim during his lifetime, and his affair with Mathilde Schoenberg, wife of composer Arnold Schoenberg, which led to Gerstl's suicide.

Richard Gerstl was born in a prosperous civil family to Emil Gerstl, a Jewish merchant, and Maria Pfeiffer, a Gentile woman.

Early in his life, Gerstl decided to become an artist, much to the dismay of his father. After performing poorly in school and being forced to leave the famed Piaristengymnasium in Vienna as a result of "disciplinary difficulties," his financially stable parents provided him with private tutors. In 1898, at the age of fifteen, Gerstl was accepted into the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, where he studied under the notoriously opinionated and difficult Christian Griepenkerl. Gerstl began to reject the style of the Vienna Secession and what he felt was pretentious art. This eventually prompted his vocal professor to proclaim, "The way you paint, I piss in the snow!