Gustav Klimt

Estate of the artist
Erich Lederer, Geneva
Sale: Christie's, New York, 8th May 2003, lot 124
Private Collection
Acquired from the above by the present owner

London, The Piccadilly Gallery & New York, Spencer A. Samuels, Gustav Klimt, 1973-74, no. 39, illustrated in the catalogue
Saratoga, Skidmore College, 1975

'Drawings by Gustav Klimt exhibited at Spencer A. Samuels' in Connoisseur, October 1974, mentioned p. 13
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt, Die Zeichnungen, 1904-1912, Salzburg, 1982, vol. II, no. 1607, illustrated p. 125
Rainer Metzger, Gustav Klimt: Drawings & Watercolours, London, 2005, no. 142, illustrated in colour p. 185

Executed on cream wove paper not laid down, T-hinged to the mount in the top two corners. Apart from a 3 by 1cm. remnant of framing tape to the lower edge of the reverse, and some light paper skinning to the upper and lower edges of the reverse, probably all due to previous framing, this work is in good original condition.
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Drawn circa 1907, Mädchenakt mit langen Haaren und nach vorn gebeugtem Oberkörper belongs to a series of works depicting female nudes mostly in standing or striding poses executed in 1906-07. In the present work, the female's figure is silhouetted in soft pencil, her arms leading out of the picture plane as if reaching for the viewer's space. The full flowing hair brilliantly accessorises the model's lasciviously overt erotic pose, accentuating her expressive gaze whilst the delicacy and suppleness of execution suggest the artist's intensive engagement with his model. Stretching across the picture plane the sitter seems to be caught in her own act, whilst her piercing gaze is directed towards the viewer, who is immediately drawn into the scene.

Rainer Metzger notes: 'In the drawings, Klimt gives pride of his own gaze, the gaze of the artist and expert, the male and the master which is directed at the woman that he sketches. Emil Pirchan described Klimt with a fitting expression: "Klimt became nothing but an eye, nothing but a hand, purely from the feeling that moved and enraptured him, was in love with the nature of his subject and he let himself be carried away without restraint" '(E. Pirchan, quoted in R. Metzger, Gustav Klimt, Drawings and Watercolours, London, 2005, p. 207).