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Female Head in Half Profile from the Left, 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
Like so many of the portrait studies Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) executed between 1915 and 1916, the present work cannot be associated with a specific portrait painting. The Leopold Collection contains three such anonymous portrait studies from this period. The depiction is limited to a half profile from a slight bottom view, without any indication of the neck and upper body which usually appear in the artist’s portrait studies. The chronology compiled by Alice Strobl shows that the model’s face apparently reappears in other works on paper, suggesting that Klimt was especially interested in her facial features. The artist captured the oval relief of the head and its foreshortening by means of only a few strokes and with remarkable confidence, while the corrections around the chin illustrate Klimt’s spontaneous method of drawing.

FS

Object data

Artist/author
  • Gustav Klimt
Title
Female Head in Half Profile from the Left
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: A
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1338
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, Berlin 2023, 2. Aufl. (Bestandskatalog des Leopold Museum)
  • 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: 2722
Keywords
woman/girlhead

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Nachlass Gustav Klimt, Wien (1918); (1)
Helene Donner, Wien (o.D.);
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (1957-1994); (2)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Nachlass-Stempel »GUSTAV / KLIMT / NACHLASS« vorne rechts unten
  2. Sonja Niederacher, Dossier zu Gustav Klimt. 26 Zeichnungen aus dem Eigentum von Helene Donner, 31.01.2018

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Search in collection

woman/girlhead

2023/2024 Partial funding for digitization by the Federal Ministry for Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport „Kulturerbe digital“ as part of NextGenerationEU.