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Lot Essay
The present work is part of a series of drawings for Klimt's portraits of Amalie Zuckerlandl (N. and D. no. 213; see Lot 10, fig. 1) and Frederike Maria Beer (N. and D. no. 196; fig. 1).
The pose of the sitter portrayed in the present drawing is unique in the series of preparatory works, and the overall subject is more a study in posture than portraiture. While Klimt ultimately depicted Amalie Zuckerkandl seated, various drawings prove that he hesitated before painting, that same year, the portrait of Fredicke Maria Beer in all of her Weisner Werkstätte finery, standing. A devotee of the Wiener Werkstätte, she decorated her house in Vienna entirely with their textiles, and wore clothes made exclusively with their distinctive highly patterned fabrics (fig. 2). She had her portrait painted in 1914 by Egon Schiele and had approached Oskar Kokoschka with another portrait commission, which the war prevented from fulfilling.
Frederike Maria Beer, like Elisabeth Lederer, is recorded as having spent a great deal of time in Klimt's studio while he struggled to perfect her likeness. Her sessions were ritualized: 'three times a week at two o'clock, she posed for him for two to three hours. In February 1916, she thought the picture she hadn't dared to look at while it was being painted was ready and on her friend's advice it was snatched from Klimt.' (T. Natter, Klimt's Women, New Haven, 2000, pp. 133-136). His relentless projections and adaptations served his artistic curiosity more speedily than they did his sitter's expectations, but the drawings document the process as he tried poses on his models the way they might have tried on gowns for his sittings. Each sheet shows an effect calculated in its precision, if incidental in its occurrence. .
The pose of the sitter portrayed in the present drawing is unique in the series of preparatory works, and the overall subject is more a study in posture than portraiture. While Klimt ultimately depicted Amalie Zuckerkandl seated, various drawings prove that he hesitated before painting, that same year, the portrait of Fredicke Maria Beer in all of her Weisner Werkstätte finery, standing. A devotee of the Wiener Werkstätte, she decorated her house in Vienna entirely with their textiles, and wore clothes made exclusively with their distinctive highly patterned fabrics (fig. 2). She had her portrait painted in 1914 by Egon Schiele and had approached Oskar Kokoschka with another portrait commission, which the war prevented from fulfilling.
Frederike Maria Beer, like Elisabeth Lederer, is recorded as having spent a great deal of time in Klimt's studio while he struggled to perfect her likeness. Her sessions were ritualized: 'three times a week at two o'clock, she posed for him for two to three hours. In February 1916, she thought the picture she hadn't dared to look at while it was being painted was ready and on her friend's advice it was snatched from Klimt.' (T. Natter, Klimt's Women, New Haven, 2000, pp. 133-136). His relentless projections and adaptations served his artistic curiosity more speedily than they did his sitter's expectations, but the drawings document the process as he tried poses on his models the way they might have tried on gowns for his sittings. Each sheet shows an effect calculated in its precision, if incidental in its occurrence. .