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Dimensions: 37.2 by 56.8cm., 14 5/8 by 22 3/8 in.
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Provenance: Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner
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Exhibited: Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe, 3. Internationale der Zeichnung, Sonderausstellung Gustav Klimt und Henri Matisse, 1970, no. 183, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Hamburg, Kunsthalle, Experiment Weltuntergang, Wien um 1900, 1981, no. 56, illustrated in the catalogue
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Literature: Walter Koschatzky, Gustav Klimt, 25 Zeichnungen ausgewählt und bearbeitet von Alice Strobl, Graz & Vienna, 1964, illustrated pl. 22
Giuseppe Lo Duca, Die Erotik im 20. Jahrhundert, Basel, 1967
Giuseppe Lo Duca, Eros im Bild, Munich, Basel & Vienna, 1968, illustrated p. 78
Alfred Werner, Gustav Klimt: One Hundred Drawings, New York, 1972, no. 94, illustrated
Otto Breicha (ed.), Gustav Klimt. Die goldene Pforte: Werk, Wesen, Wirkung, Salzburg, 1978, no. 150, illustrated p. 182
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt, Die Zeichnungen, 1912-1918, Salzburg, 1989, vol. III, no. 2435, illustrated pp. 51 & 77
Christian M. Nebehay, Gustav Klimt. From Drawing to Painting, Vienna, 1994, no. 312, illustrated in colour p. 261
Rainer Metzger, Gustav Klimt, Drawings & Watercolours, London, 2005, no. 207, illustrated in colour p. 267
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Notes: PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
Liegender Mädchenakt nach links is one of the finest examples from a series of works depicting reclining female nudes which Klimt executed between 1914 and 1915. In the present drawing, the female's figure is silhouetted in soft pencil, her left hand elegantly posed on her torso whilst her left arm is coyly bent towards her face. The contrasting strong lines of the ornamented drapery and her curly hair brilliantly accessorise the model's lasciviously overt erotic pose and accentuate her expressive eyes whilst the delicacy and suppleness of execution suggest the artist's intensive engagement with his model. Reclining diagonally across the picture plane, the sitter seems to be in an almost absent state of mind, portrayed as if in trance whilst her piercing gaze is directed towards the viewer, who is immediately drawn into the intimate scene.
As evident in the present work, the strong connection to physical reality seems to suggest that, along with many inspirations from other visual arts, photography may have played an important role. 'This suspicion', as Marian Bisanz-Prakken argued, 'was triggered by my more or less chance encounter with the 1912 popular science publication Die Schönheit des Menschen: Ihr Schauen, Bilden und Bekleiden (The Beauty of Humans: Appearance, Form, and Attire), by Johannes Grosse' (M. Bisanz-Prakken, 'Gustav Klimt: The Late Work', in Reneé Price (ed.), Gustav Klimt. The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections, New York, 2007, p. 110).
