Portrait of a Woman, 1898 - 1900

The painter and graphic artist Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) created this portrait of a woman in 1900. He depicted the unidentified model in strict profile and positioned the female half figure in a vertical format. Klimt drew the portrait in black, brown and white chalk, with parallel hatching that was partially smudged to create an almost pastel-like impression. While the high-necked garment is rendered in black and the pinned-up hair in brown, Klimt used the color of the paper to create the complexion of the face. Before he began his actual working process, he seems to have folded the sheet of paper to make the depiction appear as if it had been put in a passe-partout. In some places, Klimt kept to the frame thus created, in many other places, he did not. This gives the depiction a spontaneous and atmospheric character, despite its fine details. In its format, motif and technique, the work resembles another similar work on paper in the Leopold collection, which was created a little earlier, in 1897/98, and is titled Bust Portrait of a Young Lady with Hat and Cape in Profile to the Left.

MR, 2022