- 127
Gustav Klimt
Estimate
70,000 - 100,000 GBP
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Description
- Gustav Klimt
- Mädchenbrustbild von vorne mit Häubchen (Portrait of a girl with a hat)
- pencil, coloured crayon and white chalk on paper
- 57.2 by 40cm., 22½ by 15¾in.
Provenance
Gustav Ucicky, Vienna
Friedrich Nagy, Vienna
Mrs Kunze (by descent from the above)
Private Collection, Vienna (a gift from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Friedrich Nagy, Vienna
Mrs Kunze (by descent from the above)
Private Collection, Vienna (a gift from the above)
Acquired from the above by the present owner
Condition
Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, attached to the mount intermittently along left and right edges, and floating in the overmount. The sheet is slightly time-stained with some very thin lines of mount staining (from previous mount) to all four extreme edges. There is a horizontal crease across the sheet (two thirds of the way down). Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
From the early days of his artistic career, Klimt established himself as a portraitist, creating commissioned renderings of female members of the Viennese high society and intimate images of his companion Emilie Flöge. He simultaneously made a number of allegorical compositions, treating the human figure with the same stylised and decorative quality that came to dominate his portraits, underscoring a profound affiliation with the Symbolist artists of the late nineteenth century.
While the young subject of the present portrait may not be the archetypal Klimtian woman, the compositional arrangement and the overall execution hint at a latent Jugendstil idiom, particularly in the patterning evident in the girl’s hair and the delicate heightening of her dress and bonnet. Regine Schmidt wrote of Klimt's treatment of the female form and its centrality to his entire output as an artist: 'Gustav Klimt's work was and is such that one can lose oneself in it. His women, ladies and girls are mere forms of nature itself, flowers, as it were, that he drew and painted as they budded, blossomed and withered. [...] Like the later work of Franz Wiegele, his œuvre is a constant homage to woman. To Klimt, they were erotic creatures' (Regine Schmidt, 'Of Sweet Young Things and Femmes Fatales: Gustav Klimt and Women around 1900. A Path to Freedom', in Gerbert Frodl & Tobias G. Natter (ed.), Klimt's Women, Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 27 & 30).
While the young subject of the present portrait may not be the archetypal Klimtian woman, the compositional arrangement and the overall execution hint at a latent Jugendstil idiom, particularly in the patterning evident in the girl’s hair and the delicate heightening of her dress and bonnet. Regine Schmidt wrote of Klimt's treatment of the female form and its centrality to his entire output as an artist: 'Gustav Klimt's work was and is such that one can lose oneself in it. His women, ladies and girls are mere forms of nature itself, flowers, as it were, that he drew and painted as they budded, blossomed and withered. [...] Like the later work of Franz Wiegele, his œuvre is a constant homage to woman. To Klimt, they were erotic creatures' (Regine Schmidt, 'Of Sweet Young Things and Femmes Fatales: Gustav Klimt and Women around 1900. A Path to Freedom', in Gerbert Frodl & Tobias G. Natter (ed.), Klimt's Women, Yale University Press, 2000, pp. 27 & 30).