Standing Female Nude

Description

Gustav Klimt
Standing Female Nude (Study for Hope I)
1903–1904
Graphite on paper
Gift of the Ernst Pulgram and Frances McSparran Collection, 2007/2.83
Klimt’s use of the figure of the pregnant woman has its origins in Medicine, part of a trilogy of murals (Medicine, Philosophy and Jurisprudence) commissioned by the State for the Assembly Hall at the University of Vienna. Klimt’s provocative choice to depict a pregnant woman unabashedly nude was one of many factors that led to the rejection of the commission. The numerous preparatory sketches for Hope I, such as this drawing, represent Klimt’s working a secondary motif into a primary one, as he translates a detail from the larger work into the central theme of a new work. Here, the pregnant woman seems to be in a state of self-absorption, contemplating the life growing inside her. In the final work, the pregnant woman is shown in profile, looking directly at viewer, with death and other evil forces lurking behind. Hoffnung, the German word for hope, also means to be pregnant, and Klimt’s composition captures the allegorical play of the word.