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Reclining Female in Underwear with Spread Legs and Head Bent Backwards, Masturbating, 1916/17

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Pencil, white chalk on Japanese paper
37.4×57 cm

Artists

  • Gustav Klimt

    (Baumgarten near Vienna/Vienna 1862–1918 Vienna)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
This drawing of a model in a particularly permissive pose is a direct companion piece to the work on paper Reclining Woman in Underwear with Spread Legs, Masturbating from the Leopold Museum. It is highly likely that Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) would have created both studies during a single session, perhaps even further ones. These depictions show the same model, dressed in fashionable underwear and, if visible, elegant low shoes. As in the aforementioned drawing, the present study, too, is characterized by curvy, whirling strokes, especially in the rendering of the drapery of the underwear which Klimt invested with special sensuality in this drawing through the use of white chalk. The rendering of the arms and legs anticipates the artist’s drawing technique of later years. Characterized by Klimt approaching the final contours with a swift proliferation of strokes and without shying away from corrections, this late drawing style conveys an especially dynamic, suggestive spontaneity.

FS

Object data

Artist/author
  • Gustav Klimt
Title
Reclining Female in Underwear with Spread Legs and Head Bent Backwards, Masturbating
Date
1916/17
Art movement
Symbolism, Art Nouveau
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
Pencil, white chalk on Japanese paper
Dimensions
37.4×57 cm
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1355
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Linie und Form. 100 Meisterzeichnungen aus der Sammlung Leopold, hrsg. von Franz Smola/Fritz Koreny, Wien 2014 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 23.05.2014–20.10.2014).
  • Gustav Klimt. Die Sammlung im Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Tobias G. Natter/Elisabeth Leopold, Ostfildern 2013 (Bestandskatalog des Leopold Museum: Band 1).
  • Die nackte Wahrheit. Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka und andere Skandale, hrsg. von Tobias G. Natter/Max Hollein, München 2005 (Ausst.-Kat. Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt, 28.01.2005-24.01.2005; Leopold Museum, Wien, 31.05.2005-22.08.2005).
  • Alice Strobl: Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen 1912-1918, Salzburg 1984.
Catalogue raisonne
  • Strobl Bd. 3/1984: 2972
Keywords
woman/girlsemi-nudemasturbationlying figure (fem.)underwarehead slanting to the left (fem.)hand towards the foreheadlegs apart (fem.)

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (vor 1984-1994); (1)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Alice Strobl: Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen 1912-1918, Salzburg 1984, Nr. 2972

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Search in collection

woman/girlsemi-nudemasturbationlying figure (fem.)underwarehead slanting to the left (fem.)hand towards the foreheadlegs apart (fem.)

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