Standing female nude with drapery, facing right

Details

Inscribed “NG 1721/” by an unknown hand lower right and “24” lower left. Inscribed “K 213” and “41 51” by an unknown hand on the reverse. Strobl 1571. Literature: Glück, Gustav, Gustav Klimt. 10 Handzeichnungen mit einem Begleitwort, Vienna 1922; Bahr, Hermann, Gustav Klimt. 50 Handzeichnungen, Leipzig/Vienna 1922. Exhibitions: Gustav Klimt. 1862-1918. Zeichnungen. Gedächtnisausstellung, Graphische Sammlung der Albertina, Vienna 1962, cat. no.84; Gustav Klimt. 1862-1918, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn 1989; Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Jahrhunderthalle Hoechst et. al. 1990-1997, cat. no.41; Gustav Klimt, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence 1991/92, cat. no.70; Gustav Klimt, Patac Sztuki, Krakau 1992; Centro Social y Cultural de la Fundación La Caixa, Lleida, 2008/09; Galerie St. Etienne, New York 2017; Neue Galerie Museum, New York 2018/19. Provenance: Estate of Gustav Klimt, with stamp recto (Lugt 1575); Lafayette Park Gallery, New York; collection of/estate of Serge Sabarsky, New York, acquired from the aforementioned in 1987; collection of/Foundation Vally Sabarsky, New York.

Description

• Charming female nude by Klimt, depicting a standing figure
• The curved lines of the nude are highlighted and reinforced by the drapery While the woman shows her body from the side, she looks back out of the picture over her right shoulder.

The resulting rotation of the torso accentuates the figure’s curves. Gustav Klimt emphasizes this with his line work, the almost continuous outline accentuate the curve of the body between the head and calves. The model’s figure is also highlighted by the drapery. The sitter holds the cloth, decorated with a pattern of circles and spirals typical of Klimt, before her body. The detailed and dynamic pattern of the textile creates an appealing contrast to the curved smoothness of the skin. Klimt references the ancient motif of the Venus pudica, or modest Venus. Although the model is already turned away from the viewer, the cloth reinforces the impression of concealment – and at the same time the feeling of nudity. The mere addition of the textile emphasizes the absence of clothing. While other female nudes by Klimt from before 1910 show the women as self-confident beings who present themselves and their bodies to the painter, the one is of a delicate and fragile beauty. Klimt rarely used this composition at that time. In addition to another version with a cloth, his figures from this time are primarily shown naked or in the process of undressing, often presented by Klimt as seductresses. The eroticism shown here, however, is more subtle: here we catch Venus in her bath, a beauty in the boudoir, unprepared.