Kokokschka, who died in 1980 at the age of 94, led perhaps the most adventurous life of any of the great painters of the 20th century. This biography is the first truthful account of his life, not the romantic image promoted by Kokoschka in his autobiography and by later biographers. He was brought up in Vienna and was the protege of Klimt, soon achieving notoriety for his revolutionary style of portraiture. Driven almost insane by a disastrous affair with Mahler's widow, severely wounded twice in World War I and forced from Germany by the Nazis in World War II, Kokoschka was recognised as one of the 20th century's most original painters. Illustrated with black and white photographs.