Seated Female Nude, Her Head Resting on Her Right Knee. Study for Death and Life, 1908/09

The majority of the numerous preliminary studies for the painting Death and Life, which Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) initially worked on in 1910/11 and significantly changed in 1915, date back to 1908 and 1909. In these studies, Klimt played with the multifacetedness of the group of figures representing life by creating various motifs loosely associated with the executed painting. Most of the extant studies, two of which are kept at the Leopold Museum, concern the painting’s female figure, bending forward and supported by a man, at the bottom of the pyramid symbolizing life. While the style of drawing, made up of short strokes, is at first reminiscent of Klimt’s very late drawings, it is largely owed here to the technique of pen and ink drawing rarely employed by Klimt. Despite its erratic-looking outlines, the present work aptly conveys the sense of heavy melancholy which is generally typical of Klimt’s studies for Death and Life. This pushes the erotic effect entirely into the background.

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