Nine Cartoons for the Execution of a Frieze for the Dining Room of Stoclet House in Brussels: Part 9, Knight

On the narrow side of the dining room “The Knight” sits enthroned above a square and an area decorated with acanthus. He is the guardian between the depictions of Expectation and Fulfillment. The entire composition is composed of squares, triangles, and circles and therefore almost appears mathematically designed. With its extreme level of abstraction it is unique in Klimt’s work. For a long time, art history only referred to this piece of work as an “abstract composition” as no reference to a figural character was discovered in the figure. Only the late finding of a postcard in which Klimt told Emilie Flöge about the “Knight” clarified the identity of the “abstract composition.” The landlord Adolphe Stoclet, the patriarch of the family, is said to have taken his seat directly below the “Knight.”