Seated Female in Turned Position, Bending Forward, 1909/10

In terms of motif, this work on paper is very similar to Gustav Klimt’s (1862–1918) drawn portrait of a lady kept today at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig. One of the few drawings actually dated by Klimt, it was verifiably created in 1910. Though the two works show different degrees of elaboration – the Leipzig drawing appears like an autonomous artwork with its precise forms and colored execution, while the work from the Leopold Museum, with its quickly jotted down strokes, is clearly a study – they might depict the same model, rendered in a similar pose and with a similar hairstyle and facial expression. With its dynamic, fluent drawing style, this depiction of a model wearing an undershirt and looking directly at the beholder conveys a strong sense of immediacy.

FS