No.4
description
Gustav Klimt
(Wien 1862-1918) Reclining female nude and animal, 1910, stamped Gustav Klimt Nachlaß (slightly faded), blue and red coloured pencil, pencil, black chalk, on paper, 37 x 56 cm, framed, (K)
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt, Die Zeichnungen 1904-1912, vol. II, Verlag Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1982, pp. 236, 237, No. 1981
Provenance: ex The Piccadilly Gallery, London; private collection, USA; Courtesy Serge Sabarsky Gallery, New York
Exhibited: Galerie Negru, 32 dessins de Gustav Klimt (with an introduction to the catalogue by Serge Sabarsky), Paris 1977, No. 23; Galerie Würthle, Vienna 1978.
Many of the nude studies executed around 1910 are characterised by extreme and spatially complex positions. In these drawings the explicitly erotic theme is combined with contrasting parts of naked skin and finely textured fabric; apart from the pencil Klimt frequently used several colours - usually red and blue. In the present drawing the artist even returned to black chalk, which he had stopped using around 1904/05 in favour of the harder pencil. By blending the powerful parallel strokes, the fur draped around the shoulders and womb of the reclining model as if it were a mysterious black animal has been turned into a highly sensual element of the composition. Probably Klimt had actually intended to allude to a cat… Marian Bisanz-Prakken
estimate €40.000,- to €60.000,-
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