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Lot Essay
In 1904-5 Klimt generally preferred to use black chalk on cheap paper when drawing, but in 1906 he turned increasingly to the use of pencil on Japan paper, as in the present work. His renowned technical ability as a draughtsman is not only evident here in the loose, linear flow of the pencil, which would become even more pronounced in his later drawings, but also in his adroitness at configuring the model's pose on the sheet. The girl is subtly foreshortened across the paper, her contours are graceful, and the draping of her clothes has been positioned in such a way that they provide texture and depth, and act as a screen behind which her hand is purposefully hidden.
This figure belongs to a series of women, seen lying or reclining, nude or half-clothed, with their backs turned (Strobl, nos. 3008-3031), which may be preparatory studies related to Klimt's painting Die Braut, 1917-1918 (Novotny & Dobai, no. 222; Private collection). One can see the particularly elegant lines of the present drawing carried over to the female figure seen at the lower left of Die Braut, with her back to the viewer. The closed eyes of the model, to which the viewer's gaze is drawn and where the line is a little heavier, echo the haunting faces of the figures in Jan Toorop's Sphinx (1892-97, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague), a work, according to Marian Bisanz-Prakken, which was 'of paradigmatic importance for Klimt', particularly in its spiritual significance (in Gustav Klimt, Modernism in the Making, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2001, p.156). Also influential in this regard were erotic Japanese woodcuts; both these artistic sources hint at the presence of a greater mystery in these drawings, which embodies the duality of sensual and religious ecstasy. Klimt's insatiable fascination with the female form was in large measure an aesthetic inspiration derived from his profoundly and innately sensual character, but moreover this subject provided a symbolical domain where he might intellectually explore and express the tension between the erotic and the spiritual aspects of human existence.
Of equal importance to the generation, composition and meaning of Klimt's late sketches is their overwhelmingly personal quality, their unique value as an avenue of access to the artist's private world. Drawing was normally the initial artistic manifestation of Klimt's ideas and impulses, the means by which he worked up and through his thoughts. Here was an intimate and immediate link between mind and hand, conception and execution. Klimt's drawings enable the viewer to witness firsthand certain unguarded truths and an unmediated vision of the artist's true self and interests. A drawing of the kind seen here may be understood as, in a practical sense, a preliminary sketch for a later composition, but at the same time, it is truly an independent work, contained within the spontaneous moment of its execution, which serves as a pure and instinctive expression of the artist's skill and his emotional persona. Klimt's drawings, in both their style and manner of execution, constitute a key development in early modernism, and were highly influential in the emergence of Viennese Expressionism, as seen especially in the work of Schiele and Kokoschka, who also invested the subject of the female form with a powerful and defining emotional significance.
This figure belongs to a series of women, seen lying or reclining, nude or half-clothed, with their backs turned (Strobl, nos. 3008-3031), which may be preparatory studies related to Klimt's painting Die Braut, 1917-1918 (Novotny & Dobai, no. 222; Private collection). One can see the particularly elegant lines of the present drawing carried over to the female figure seen at the lower left of Die Braut, with her back to the viewer. The closed eyes of the model, to which the viewer's gaze is drawn and where the line is a little heavier, echo the haunting faces of the figures in Jan Toorop's Sphinx (1892-97, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague), a work, according to Marian Bisanz-Prakken, which was 'of paradigmatic importance for Klimt', particularly in its spiritual significance (in Gustav Klimt, Modernism in the Making, exh. cat., National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2001, p.156). Also influential in this regard were erotic Japanese woodcuts; both these artistic sources hint at the presence of a greater mystery in these drawings, which embodies the duality of sensual and religious ecstasy. Klimt's insatiable fascination with the female form was in large measure an aesthetic inspiration derived from his profoundly and innately sensual character, but moreover this subject provided a symbolical domain where he might intellectually explore and express the tension between the erotic and the spiritual aspects of human existence.
Of equal importance to the generation, composition and meaning of Klimt's late sketches is their overwhelmingly personal quality, their unique value as an avenue of access to the artist's private world. Drawing was normally the initial artistic manifestation of Klimt's ideas and impulses, the means by which he worked up and through his thoughts. Here was an intimate and immediate link between mind and hand, conception and execution. Klimt's drawings enable the viewer to witness firsthand certain unguarded truths and an unmediated vision of the artist's true self and interests. A drawing of the kind seen here may be understood as, in a practical sense, a preliminary sketch for a later composition, but at the same time, it is truly an independent work, contained within the spontaneous moment of its execution, which serves as a pure and instinctive expression of the artist's skill and his emotional persona. Klimt's drawings, in both their style and manner of execution, constitute a key development in early modernism, and were highly influential in the emergence of Viennese Expressionism, as seen especially in the work of Schiele and Kokoschka, who also invested the subject of the female form with a powerful and defining emotional significance.