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ONLINECOLLECTION

Bust Portrait of a Female Nude from the Right, c. 1916

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Pencil on Japanese paper
57×37.5 cm

Artists

  • Gustav Klimt

    (Baumgarten near Vienna/Vienna 1862–1918 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
This work on paper is among the drawn bust and half-length portraits Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) created between 1915 and 1916 that cannot be associated with any specific portrait paintings. The Leopold Collection comprises three such anonymous portrait studies from this period. With many of them, Klimt seemed to be more occupied with formal concerns, for instance with the harmony of the face’s oval shape, than with rendering the individual traits of the depicted. In the present work, by contrast, Klimt paid close attention to the model’s physiognomic details, including the distinctive curve of the nose, the full lower lip and the almond-shaped eyes whose emphasized contours invest the depicted with a melancholy air. Along with the precise contours in the area of the face, there are some corrections in the outlines of the neck and chest which illustrate Klimt’s spontaneous method of drawing.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Gustav Klimt
Title
Bust Portrait of a Female Nude from the Right
Date
c. 1916
Art movement
Art Nouveau, Symbolism
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
Pencil on Japanese paper
Dimensions
57×37.5 cm
Signature
Stamp (black) lower right: GUSTAV KLIMT NACHLASS; designated lower right: H
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1336
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Gustav Klimt. Jahrhundertkünstler, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger/Sandra Tretter, Wien 2018 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 22.06.2018–04.11.2018).
  • 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: 2707
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Gustav Klimt, Wien (1918); (1)
Rudolf Staechelin, Basel (o.D.-1931); (2)
Rudolf Staechelin´sche Familienstiftung, Basel (1931-1977); (3)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1977-1994); (4)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Nachlass-Stempel: „Gustav Klimt Nachlass“ vorne rechts unten.
  2. Michael Wladika, Dossier zu 11 Blättern von Gustav Klimt mit der Provenienz Rudolf Staechelin vom 31.01.2018, S. 60f.
  3. Stempel auf der Blattrückseite links unten: „Rud. Staechelin´sche Familienstiftung Inv. Nr. 256“
  4. Wladika, Dossier, S. 58.

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