(Vienna 1862–1918)
Portrait of a lady, 1916/1917, faded estate stamp in left lower corner, above in pencil 110, on the reverse in pencil No. 154, pencil on paper, 56.6 x 37 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Julius Zimpel (1896–1925), Vienna, nephew of Gustav Klimt
Gallery Josip Vila, Zagreb, February 1989
Christian M. Nebehay, Vienna, 1989
Otto Glaser (1926–2017), Dublin (purchased from the above)
Private Collection, Ireland (by descent by the above)

Registered and illustrated in:
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, vol. IV, No. 3710a (mentioned provenance incorrect)

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

Hardly any genre of image is so continuously represented in Klimt's draftsmanship as the portrait of the half figure, or the bust portrait. It is important to realize that the sitters – with the exception of the studies created for his portrait commissions – are mostly anonymous and that Klimt is not concerned with their individual representation. The focus of these autonomous, often sophisticatedly designed sheets is not the person, but the type, combined with a wide spectrum of atmospheric nuances. For Klimt as a draftsman, the female half-portrait was an endless field of experimentation for new techniques as well as for multi-layered explorations in the "realm of the soul" until his late creative years.

That these efforts could lead to extraordinary results is also shown by the present drawing of an anonymous model, which – characteristic of the late period – is marked by great extremes.
Of delicate differentiation is the line of the face looking over the shoulder, observed somewhat from above, in which the focus is on the introverted expression of the eyes looking down slightly. This is contrasted by the almost erotic wildness of the lines Klimt endeavors to capture the folds of the outer garments. The latter show a high degree of abstraction and refer to unmistakable inspirations of Expressionism.

Marian Bisanz-Prakken