Young Woman in an Armchair

Shortly before the turn of the century, Gustav Klimt started to turn his back on historicism. At the time, he primarily painted portraits of women. The charcoal drawing Young Woman in an Armchair was made in 1896, one year before the foundation of the Vienna Secession. The drawing appeared in 1899 entitled Woman in Morning Coat in the important Austrian Art Nouveau magazine Ver Sacrum, the mouthpiece of the Vienna Secession. Klimt devoted great care to drawing the woman’s head, whereas the body remains sketchy, intimated only by soft, curving lines. Her smile and the way she looks out directly at us show how in this drawing Klimt emphasizes sensual representation, departing from the statue-like style of various preceding images. His drawings, fleeting notes and small studies (which often culminated in Paintings) remain highly fascinating to this day. (CF)