Klimt's Studies for Female Portraits (1911–18)

The drawing, which is highly similar to the painting, has a very different style of presentation and mood. In the Manila shawl with long fringes, Klimt cautiously characterizes the outlines and various structures of the ornamental layers tapering toward one another.

Unlike in the painting, the hands remain completely hidden.

With great care, Klimt defines the facial features of the woman. Her gaze appears to drift off into the distance.

The heavy strokes in the studies for "Adele Bloch-Bauer II" evoke a melancholy mood. This study is dominated by a verticality that seems to flow endlessly. That includes the inner lining of the clothing with generous hatches and the heavy contours of the long cape, and the dense line structure of the sleeves which darkly protrude.

Klimt reduces facial features to a minimum.

Using highly differentiated, often extremely intermittent strokes, he attempted again and again to characterize the fabrics, strikingly distinguishing them from one another and causing them to glow in different ways.

These painterly effects achieved through purely linear means characterize the artist's late drawing style, with his preference for pencils that produced soft and saturated lines.

Klimt also completed a portrait of Mäda Primavesi's mother Eugenia, who was then around 40 years old. He created the preliminary sketches for both pictures at around the same time.

This study for the portrait reveals that Klimt had some difficulty in finding a favorable pose for her because of her portliness. The powerful yet subtly differentiating lines convey light and vividness. The impression of an emphatic and matronly personality dominates.

Her arm is presented in an energetic pose and her hands are clenched into fists.

This clearly important detail reappears in the upper-right corner.

Her horizontal arm finds balance through the strongly accentuated curve of her shoulders, as well as through the curved ornament decoration of the long scarf falling over her shoulders.

Her slightly raised face looks out of the picture, and her mouth is slightly opened as if she is going to speak.

In this final study, the upright person faces the observer directly and poses in front of a symmetrical, mountain-like structure. Klimt's emphasis here is on the multiple heavy outlines of the caftan-like robe produced by the Wiener Werkstätte.

The rounded shoulders dramatically emerge, and the energy of the contours seems to be transferred to the lines of the "mountain" flowing down on both sides with which the figure coalesces.

In the study of the seated Amalie Zuckerkandl, Klimt resorts to a pictorial method which he had developed a year earlier in his drawings for the portrait of Eugenia Primavesi. Following this innovative principle, he merges the sofa with the enthroned directly facing the observer with the cushions towering behind her to form a symmetrical triangle.

In this example, his drawing energy is spent on the lushly flowing layers of clothing. Their borders and inner structures are alternately defined by long-flowing, vibrating complexes of lines and short, vibrant strokes.

The pole of serenity in these broadly sweeping currents of motion is formed by the face, frontal and inclined slightly to the left, with its vivid gaze and slightly open mouth.

A recurring motif in these studies is the loose-fitting, fur-trimmed coat which reveals a view of the deep décolletage.

The study in which she sits facing front with her face propped and bent towards the artist seems to be completely detached from the preparations of the painting.

The thickening of the dark pencil lines around the chin makes the bright oval shape of the face glow like magic. With a tension between concentrated lines and at times extremely free ones, the artist achieved particularly intense psychological expression.

The total of three posthumous portraits of Ria Munk have a dramatic backstory. The young woman was engaged to the scandalous writer Hanns Heinz Ewers. When he ended the relationship by letter, the 24-year-old took her own life in 1911 by shooting herself through the heart.

The lyrical study of a dancer (1916/17) was made for the revised version of the posthumous portrait "Ria Munk II." According to a later statement by Ria's cousin Erich Lederer, Klimt painted a topless dancer partially covered by a shawl over the original picture.

A third posthumous portrait commissioned ("Ria Munk III") remained unfinished. The study of the figure anchored within the sheet like a pillar and wrapped in cloth has an almost metaphysical effect. Klimt dealt with these drawings more intensely in light of the posthumous aspect of the portrait.

To this end, he posed different models with multiple layers of patterned cloth wrapped around their bodies to emphasize the transcendental character of the figure.

The constantly circling pencil lines glide over the paper at changing rhythms, describing a multitude of abstract patterns.