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Lot Essay
This drawing has been related to a series of preparatory studies Klimt executed for a Widmungsblatt in honour of the seventieth birthday of Otto Wagner in 1911.
The pose, often sketched by Klimt earlier in his life, recalls his painting Goldfische, 1901-2, (N. and D. no. 124; fig. 1), housed in the Art Museum, Solothurn. This painting was executed as a response to criticism and controversy sparked by his University paintings, Philosophie and Medizin, painted between 1899 and 1903 for the Great Hall of Vienna University and destroyed by fire in 1945 at Schloß Immendorf. Initially entitled Au meine Kritiker (To my critics), the painting features prominently in the foreground, almost emerging from the picture plane, the irreverently turned backside of a smiling naiad who looks out over her shoulder at the viewer. While she is not swimming, the model in the present work seems to have just emerged from the pool of fluidly drawn drapery in loose folds around her.
Otto Wagner, the celebrated Viennese architect and designer (1841-1918), was an outspoken and respected supporter of Klimt's who defended the University paintings from their conservative attackers. He would have recognized the allusion to the visual rebuttal of the critics immediately when it appeared on the dedication work that Klimt made for him (see also Lot 17).
The pose, often sketched by Klimt earlier in his life, recalls his painting Goldfische, 1901-2, (N. and D. no. 124; fig. 1), housed in the Art Museum, Solothurn. This painting was executed as a response to criticism and controversy sparked by his University paintings, Philosophie and Medizin, painted between 1899 and 1903 for the Great Hall of Vienna University and destroyed by fire in 1945 at Schloß Immendorf. Initially entitled Au meine Kritiker (To my critics), the painting features prominently in the foreground, almost emerging from the picture plane, the irreverently turned backside of a smiling naiad who looks out over her shoulder at the viewer. While she is not swimming, the model in the present work seems to have just emerged from the pool of fluidly drawn drapery in loose folds around her.
Otto Wagner, the celebrated Viennese architect and designer (1841-1918), was an outspoken and respected supporter of Klimt's who defended the University paintings from their conservative attackers. He would have recognized the allusion to the visual rebuttal of the critics immediately when it appeared on the dedication work that Klimt made for him (see also Lot 17).