Seated Woman (Marietta), 1907

In its stylized background design, Broncia Koller-Pinell’s (1863–1934) Seated Woman (Marietta) reveals close affinity with the Secessionist aesthetic, in particular with Gistav Klimt’s (1862–1918) planar art and his “Golden Period,” even though in the case of Koller-Pinell, this is employed in the sense of a constructive simplification. With her nude, Koller-Pinell turned to a theme that had been a taboo for female artists, and also grounds for their exclusion to the Academy of Fine Arts. By means of an innovative, rigorous picture composition, she transfers her personal perspective on to the subject, who here is no longer an eroticizing figure that wards off the female body in ornamental fashion; rather, she emphasizes the vitality and individuality of the model. The intimacy of the scene is underscored by the model’s present, open gaze and the latter’s almost shy posture, which, while it quotes the famous nudes of art history such as Titian’s (1488/90–1576) Venus of Urbino (1538) or Édouard Manet’s (1832–1883) Olympia (1863), remains far removed from those, however.

Text Leopold Museum