(Vienna 1862–1918)
Sitzende von vorne (Studie für “Judith II”), (Seated woman from the front, Study for “Judith II”), c. 1908, signed GUSTAV KLIMT, on the reverse inscribed E.L. Geneve (Erich Lederer) and with his notes on exhibitions, numbered twice 086, pencil, red and blue colored pencil with white heightening, 56 x 37 cm

Listed and illustrated:
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, 1904–1912, vol. II, Verlag der Galerie Welz, Salzburg 1982, no. 1700, full page ill. p. II

Provenance:
August (1857–1936) und Serena (1867–1943) Lederer, Vienna
Erich Lederer (1896–1985), Vienna & Geneva until after 1982
Private Collection, Austria

Exhibition:
London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Austrian painting and sculpture 1900–1960, 4 May – 4 June 1960, cat. no. 71
Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, Art Autrichien du Vingtieme Siecle, April – May 1961, cat. no. 92
Vienna, Albertina, Gustav Klimt. Zeichnungen, Gedächtnisausstellung, 16 October – 16 December 1962, cat. no. 69, plate 13
Essen, Museum Folkwang, Gustav Klimt. Zeichnungen aus Albertina und Privatbesitz, 30 January – 14 March 1976, cat. no. 67, ill. p. 14

Literature:
Die bildenden Künste, II., vol. 1919, ill. after p. 8

We are grateful to Marian Bisanz-Prakken for examining this work in the original and for her help in cataloguing the work.


Gustav Klimt’s painting, first exhibited in 1909 with the title “Judith”, is generally referred to today as “Judith II” (to distinguish it from his “Judith I” painted in 1901), but is also often titled “Salome”. The protagonist is associated with the latter femme fatale primarily because of the flowing veils, which seem to allude to Salome’s famous veil dance.

Klimt’s graphic exploration of this female figure - whoever may be meant - took place away from the mixture of decadence and madness that characterizes the oil painting. The studies drawn around 1908 are self-contained and are partly linked to the dance theme of Salome, but also to the drawings of female dancers that Klimt had created shortly before for the figure of “Expectation” in the Stoclet frieze.

This very cultivated study of - according to Erich Lederer - Klimt’s most beautiful model, which also appears in the painting, is described by Alice Strobl as a work “whose richness of line, colors and heightening of white make it one of the main works of Klimt’s mature drawing style and in this area offers an equivalent to the painting ‘Kiss’.”

Indeed, Klimt seems to have found the perfect balance between confident lightness and formal discipline in this casually posing seated figure, whose facial expressions suggest a hint of decadence. This masterpiece is further distinguished by an exceptional degree of linear differentiation.

(Marian Bisanz-Prakken)