Liegender Halbakt mit gespreizten Schenkeln

Gustav Klimt’s erotic drawings from 1916-1917 are among the most formally and psychologically charged works of his celebrated career. Focused almost solely on female nudes, these works are executed with a rapid, expressive line that privileges immediacy and expression, conveying a striking physical and emotional presence. Exemplifying the artist’s mature handling, Liegender Halbakt mit gespreizten Schenkeln is an image from which both erotic abandonment and technical mastery radiate. The sole female figure is captured in a moment of uninhibited ecstasy, with her eyes closed and her lips softly parted. Lying on her back, the woman is viewed from above – a striking perspective that suggests both the physical proximity of artist to model and the intense intimacy of the scene. Klimt contrasts the smooth expanses of the model’s thighs with the expressively textured folds of her dress gathered around her waist, while the vast space surrounding her isolates her from any narrative context, suspending the body in an undefined, almost weightless realm. This compositional strategy evokes the influence of the Japanese ukiyo-e prints which adorned Klimt's studio walls – particularly their flattened perspective and emphasis on the momentary.

The eroticism in Liegender Halbakt mit gespreizten Schenkeln is neither moralised nor sensationalised; rather than positioning the nude as a passive object of desire, Klimt imbues her with sexual autonomy and psychological complexity. The scholar Max Eisler noted that Klimt sought to depict the sudden, transitory moment when desire transforms the body and consciousness. Thus, Klimt renders pleasure not as a spectacle for the viewer but an inner experience, captured with startling honesty and sensitivity.