Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
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Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Liegender Halbakt nach links

Details
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
Liegender Halbakt nach links
signed 'Gustav Klimt' (lower left)
pencil on paper
14 5/8 x 22½in. (37.3 x 57cm.)
Executed in 1916-17
Provenance
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner and thence by descent.
Literature
A. Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, Vol. III, Salzburg, 1984, no. 2970 (illustrated p. 204).
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

No more than private notes and testaments to a certain voyeuristic tendency, Klimt's erotic drawings portray women in postures where they are exposing or offering themselves to the viewer. Impassive to another's presence and entranced in their emotions, these women are often found in a state of rapture. In his essay on this subject, Max Eisler notes, "que les corps dessinés par Klimt expriment la tension des excès érotiques. Ce qui importe précisément à l'artiste c'est cet instant dynamique où sous l'avidité sensuelle déchaînée, les membres tremblent, les corps se dilatent, les visages se consument; il les présente assouvis ou sur le point de s'assoupir. La pulsion animale est transcrite directement, en pleine action" (quoted in S. Sabarsky, Gustav Klimt: 100 dessins, Milan, 1983, p. 19).

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