[Audio Guide]
Klimt made many drawings in preparation for single portrait. He also left behind many sketches of nude women that were for his own enjoyment in drawing rather than for a particular work. For such sketches, Klimt observed his models and accurately captured the volumes of their anatomy using only simple lines. In his later years, Klimt required that his models adopt natural poses. The models made themselves at home in the studio—Klimt copying the poses that caught his attention onto successive sheets of paper. As an image of a model in a peaceful sleep, Klimt was deftly able to capture the limpness of the natural body.
[Audio Guide]
Klimt left behind many sketches for the preparation of a single portrait. He invited his models to his studio many times, painting these women in a variety of poses in order to find the most appropriate posture for that particular person. In many cases, it took several years before Klimt arrived at the position eventually used in the actual portrait. This work is one of the sketches made in the preparation of Portrait of Eugenia Primavesi, also in the collection of this museum. Compared to the figural style of depiction used in the final oil painting of this frontally facing woman, the body and clothing are more softly rendered in the sketch. In this work we get a sense of the living form of Mrs. Primavesi before she was transformed into an artwork.
[Audio Guide]
[Audio Guide]
Klimt produced several thousand large-scale drawings over the course of his life. The drawings he made between 1890 and 1900 are distinguished by their softly drawn lines. The present work of a young woman is a preparatory sketch for Music I (1895), in which an archaic-looking woman plays a harp. Klimt is known for not letting go of his drawings. Those of his drawings that have signatures were those he released before his death. This sketch was drawn with a delicate touch, and we can only speculate who he gave it to.
