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Reclining Female Nude with Closed Eyes. Study for The Virgin, 1911 - 1912

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Pencil on Japanese paper
56×36.7 cm

Artists

  • Gustav Klimt

    (Baumgarten near Vienna/Vienna 1862–1918 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
This drawing, showing a reclining female nude with bent arms and legs in a complex contortion, was identified as a study for the painting The Virgin by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) already by the time it was reproduced in the portfolio on Klimt’s drawings published by Gilhofer & Ranschburg in 1919. While Alice Strobl linked the reclining woman’s dreamy, smiling expression with that of the central figure in the painting, her complex pose – with arms and legs pointing in different directions – also allows for associations with the girl wearing a blossom veil that also appears in the painting. The drawing aptly conveys the ambivalence between the models’ reclining and upright floating positions that is so characteristic for the painting. Despite its highly sketch-like nature, the study bears an oval signature by Klimt, which suggests that the artist either particularly valued the work or had the immediate intention to sell it. The drawing once verifiably belonged to the Lederer Collection.

FS

Object data

Artist/author
  • Gustav Klimt
Title
Reclining Female Nude with Closed Eyes. Study for The Virgin
Date
1911 - 1912
Art movement
Art Nouveau, Symbolism
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
Pencil on Japanese paper
Dimensions
56×36.7 cm
Signature
Signed lower right using pencil: Gustav Klimt; numbered lower left: 1730
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1296
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Gustav Klimt. Die Sammlung im Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Tobias G. Natter/Elisabeth Leopold, Ostfildern 2013 (Bestandskatalog des Leopold Museum: Band 1).
  • Alice Strobl: Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen 1912-1918, Salzburg 1984.
Catalogue raisonne
  • Strobl Bd. 3/1984: 2276
Keywords
woman/girlnudelying figure (fem.)the (nude) human figure (fem.)bent legs (fem.)head slanting to the right (fem.)

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Sammlung Lederer, Györ/Wien (vor 1919); (1)

Während der NS-Zeit sichergestellt und im Depot Salzbergwerk Alt-Aussee eingelagert.
1948 an Erich Lederer übergeben.

Erich Lederer, Genf (ab 1948); (2)
Galerie Wolfgang Gurlitt, München (vor 1962); (3)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (vor 1965-1994); (4)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Gilhofer & Ranschburg, Gustav Klimt. Fünfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen, Wien 1919, Tafel 22; Tobias G. Natter / Elisabeth Leopold (Hrsg.), Gustav Klimt. Die Sammlung im Leopold Museum, Ostfildern 2013, S. 237, Nr. Z 57
  2. Michael Wladika, Dossier „LM Inv. Nr. „1289, 1296, 1319“ vom 31.01.2018, S. 16
  3. Grafische Sammlung Albertina, Katalog zu „Gustav Klimt 1862-1918. Zeichnungen“, Wien 1962, S. 51, Nr. 157
  4. Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Zeichnungen und Gemälde, Salzburg 1965 (2. Auflage), S. 99, Nr. 36

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Search in collection

woman/girlnudelying figure (fem.)the (nude) human figure (fem.)bent legs (fem.)head slanting to the right (fem.)