Bust Portrait of a Female Nude from the Left, c. 1915

This work on paper is part of a larger group of drawn bust and half-length portraits by Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) which can be dated around 1915/16. The Leopold Collection comprises three portrait studies from this period, including Female Head in Half Profile from the Left. Many of the models depicted in these portraits wear a full-bodied hairstyle, fashionable from 1914, which the artist invested with extra volume in this rendering. Alice Strobl highlighted the curls of hair visible in the drawing, which seem to alleviate the face’s severity. What is particularly remarkable about this depiction is its high degree of immediacy brought about by the model turning her head and gaze towards the beholder, by her lips parted into a smile and her hand, rendered with only a few strokes, held up to her chest to point at something. In autonomous portrait drawings such as this one, Klimt liked to explore various moods – in the present example, it was likely one induced by a cheerful and animated conversation between the painter and his model.

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