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Seated Young Girl, c. 1894

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
Oil on wood
14.1×9.6 cm

Artists

  • Gustav Klimt

    (Baumgarten near Vienna/Vienna 1862–1918 Vienna)

Currently on display at OG4
This small-scale portrait of a girl from the Leopold Museum is part of a group of likenesses, likely created in 1894, in which Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) imitated the characteristics of photography with remarkable precision. In this extremely small format, Klimt impressed with his rendering’s high degree of realism which he masterfully celebrated with a miniature-like manner of painting. The artist captured the girl’s animated expression through tiny details that are hardly visible to the naked eye, and applied himself with great dedication to the sensual rendering of her lustrous silk dress. This early work anticipates Klimt’s later female portraits with which the master proved himself not only to be a great psychologist but also an expert renderer of the ladies’ fashion of his time. The way in which Klimt captured the young girl sitting in a chair from a slight bottom view and in which he illuminated her by means of various light sources to create a three-dimensional surface relief recalls the situation in photographic studios of the time also in terms of the work’s composition.

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Object data

Artist/author
  • Gustav Klimt
Title
Seated Young Girl
Date
c. 1894
Art movement
Historicism
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on wood
Dimensions
14.1×9.6 cm
Signature
Signed upper right: GUSTAV KLIMT
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 4146
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
  • Gustav Klimt. Jahrhundertkünstler, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger/Sandra Tretter, Wien 2018 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 22.06.2018–04.11.2018).
  • Gustav Klimt. Die Sammlung im Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Tobias G. Natter/Elisabeth Leopold, Ostfildern 2013 (Bestandskatalog des Leopold Museum: Band 1).
  • Tobias Natter: Gustav Klimt, Köln 2012.
  • Alfred Weidinger/Michaela Seiser u.a.: Gustav Klimt, München u.a. 2007.
  • Körper, Gesicht, Seele. Frauenbilder vom 16. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, Wien 2006 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 09.06.2006-02.10.2006).
Catalogue raisonne
  • Natter 2012: 77
  • Weidinger/Seiser/Winkler 2007: 89
Keywords
portraitwoman/girlsitting figure (fem.)hands foldedsilkevening dressarmchair/seat

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

Margarethe Bezdek, Wien (um 1952-1974);
Liselotte Günzl, Wien (1974); (1)
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (nach 1975-1994); (2)
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (1994).

  1. Tobias G. Natter / Elisabeth Leopold (Hrsg.), Gustav Klimt. Die Sammlung im Leopold Museum, Ostfildern 2013, S. 212, G2.
  2. Michael Wladika, Gustav Klimt. Sitzendes junges Mädchen, Dossier vom 31.01.2017, S. 9

For provenance related information, please contact us.

Search in collection

portraitwoman/girlsitting figure (fem.)hands foldedsilkevening dressarmchair/seat