Egon Schiele - Vivre et mourir #[nn]

Published by Casterman in 2012, this graphic biography by Xavier Coste brings the turbulent life of Austrian expressionist Egon Schiele to vivid comics form. The cover draws an immediate contrast between a languid, reclining figure in the background — evoking the raw, intimate quality of Schiele's own paintings — and a sharp-featured young man in the foreground, tie loosened, gaze intense and inward, with an easel just visible behind him. It's a beautifully composed portrait of an artist and his world, rendered in Coste's fluid, expressive linework.