Klimt's Drawings

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Daniel Coenn. Klimt's Drawings

Klimt's Drawings

Foreword

Annotated Drawings

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Drawings played a major role in Gustav Klimt's artistic development. From sketches and preparations for oil paintings, to erotic drawings and portraits, the present collection illustrates the full range and depth of Klimt's abilities as a draughtsman.

The controversial faculty paintings for which he was commissioned in 1894 - Philosphy, Medicine, Jurisprudence and Law - give excellent examples of how Klimt expressed even the most abstract, and complex ideas through the means of a female body: "Woman is the major creation" he famously asserted.

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Klimt, who executed his last male portrait in 1899, almost only painted women and displayed a voyeuristic fascination with woman as "the Other", which for him became the representation of life. Servaes recalled of his studio and working method: "Here he was surrounded by mysterious, naked female creatures, who while he stood silent in front of his easel, strolled around his studio, stretching themselves, laying around and making the best of the day - always ready for the command of the master obediently to stand still whenever he caught sight of a pose or a movement that appealed to his sense of beauty and that he would then capture in a rapid drawing."

"Klimt was conceivable only in Vienna (or) better still in Budapest or Constantinople ..." wrote the Austrian colleague Anton Faistauer after Klimt's death. "His entire spirituality is oriental. Eros plays a dominant role, his taste for women is almost Turkish... Klimt never looked westwards and with the exception of a journey to Spain and to Paris was never interested in Western culture... Klimt's personality was the same as his work... He loved the good life and peace and quiet like a true oriental and looked like one, too."

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