0003
Gustav Klimt
(Wien 1862 - 1918 Wien)
„Standing Nude Girl in Profile Facing Left (Study for the left of the Gorgons in the "Feindlichen Gewalten" - Beethoven Frieze)“
1901
black chalk on paper; framed
44.5 x 31 cm
estate stamp on the lower right
inscribed on the lower right: R
Provenance
Carl Reininghaus, Vienna;
collection August and Serena Lederer, Vienna;
Erich Lederer, Vienna and Geneva;
private property, Austria
Exhibition
1903 Vienna, Secession, 18. Secessionsausstellung, Klimt-Kollektive, 14. Nov.-late Dec.;
1928 Vienna, Secession, 99. Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Künstler Wiener Secession, Klimt-Gedächtnis-Ausstellung (ill.);
1962 Vienna, Albertina, Gustav Klimt 1862-1918, Zeichnungen, Gedächtnisausstellung, no. 49;
Literature
Max Eisler, Gustav Klimt, Vienna 1920, ill. 23a;
Emil Pirchan, Gustav Klimt, Ein Künstler aus Wien, Vienna/Leipzig 1942, ill. p. 43;
Emil Pirchan, Gustav Klimt, Vienna 1956, ill. 131;
Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Der Beethovenfries, Salzburg 1977, p. 54, pl. 15 (p. 111);
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen 1878-1903, vol. I, Salzburg 1980, no. 784, ill. p. 237
Estimate: € 60.000 - 120.000
Result: € 185.600 (incl. fees)
Auction is closed.
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The narrow central wall of the “Hostile Forces” was a highly decorative denunciation of sensual and material pleasures. In this inferno, characterised by illness, madness and death, the “three Gorgons”, lustful companions of the monster Typhon, stand out thanks to the alternating, sensually flowing and strikingly angular contours of their shoulders, breasts, elbows, hips, bellies and loins. The numerous studies for these provocative female figures, sources of controversy for the Viennese public, are characterised by sensuously curved contours and boldly stylised hair. In the studies for the left-hand “Gorgon” – as in the example shown here – Klimt explores the nuances of derangement and madness, which manifest themselves above all in the faces and the clutching fingers. In the painted version, the expression of madness is considerably intensified by the lurid contrasts between the red lips, the light-coloured skin and the jet-black hair adorned with gold.
(Marian Bisanz-Prakken)