| Women Friends | |
|---|---|
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| Artist | Gustav Klimt |
| Year | 1916-1917 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 99 cm× 99[?] cm(40 in× 40[?] in) |
Women Friends (1916-1917) is a painting by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. Alternatively known as The Friends, or Girlfriends II (Freundinnen II), among others, the work was destroyed by fire in 1945 alongside several other of Klimt's paintings in the burning of Schloss Immendorf. [1] [2]
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Made towards the end of Klimt's career, the visual language seen in many of his other late paintings is visible in Women Friends. Such stylizations include the flattening of planes ( Lady with a Fan ), visible brushstrokes ( Portrait of a Lady ), attention to color, and exaggeration of form and pose ( The Kiss , The Maiden ).
The subject depicts two women, one nude and one clothed in a flowing red garment, gazing out towards the viewer. The nude woman leans into the other figure, her head pointed at an angle and her arm twisted around her chest. She is adorned in colorful, patterned jewelry, and fabric tied around her neck. The clothed woman turns her head over her shoulder, wearing a headscarf also adorned with patterning. Although the painting has no true representational background, simply patchy pink tones, there is an allusion to depth through the positioning of the figures, the clothed woman standing slightly in front of the nude woman. Surrounding the women are oriental motifs, those of birds, both real and fantastical, and flowers. Their bright colors and black outlining create an illustrative effect. This is amplified by the lack of light source, naturalistic shading, or three-dimensionality in the bodies of the women. The loose and colorful brushstrokes of the background complete this effect, reflected in the treatment of brushstrokes in both clothing and skin.
Oriental themes became one of Klimt's staples towards the end of his career, after 1910, seen primarily as motifs in the background. Also visible in other portraits, such as his portraits of Friederike Maria Beer, Elisabeth Lederer, and his final work Lady with a Fan , he engaged frequently with Chinese art. In the background of Women Friends, there are motifs of the phoenix (or Feng-hua) on the bottom left, the lotus on the top left, and the crane on the bottom right, all symbols of luck. [3]
Klimt treated the subject of women and feminine beauty most in his paintings, rarely depicting men. He combined both studies of models and imaginative, idealization of poses and expressions. Women Friends is one of several outliers, in that the models are unknown, and the painting was not commissioned, as many of his portraits of the Viennese bourgeoisie were. [4] [5] Many of Klimt's compositions sought to portray femininity in new and radically different staging. This included potential depictions of lesbianism, incorporated into the more overtly explored ranges of sexuality and of the female body within his works. Although the relationship of the women in the painting remains ambiguous, the topic was a fashionable one in French pop culture, and Klimt is known for his exploration of female sexuality. [5] Similar themes are speculated in his paintings Water Serpents I and Water Serpents II . Whether intended or not, many of his paintings of women are provocative through their nudity and intimate compositions.
The Lederer family, consisting of August Lederer and his wife Serena Lederer, were Viennese art collectors who were one of the main patrons of Klimt. They owned the largest amount of his drawings and paintings, forming the most important ensemble of his artistic career. [6] The Lederer Collection included Women Friends as well as many other prominent works of Klimt's career, such as the Beethoven Frieze , Schubert at the Piano, Philosophy and Jurisprudence , as well as commissioned portraits of Serena Lederer, her mother, and her daughter. [6] Many of Klimt's portraits of women were commissioned, and at quite high prices, at this point in his career. [4] There is no evidence this painting was commissioned, representing rather imagined characters. [5] Klimt was known for his portraiture of women and his fascination with the depiction of female sexuality. [4]
Twenty years after Klimt's death, nearing the end of the Second World War, Germany annexed Austria in 1938, thus bringing to a halt private collecting of the arts. Dispossessed along with many other Austrian art, sculpture, and cultural items, some of the Lederer Collection was inventoried and categorized into the 'Reich List' as cultural treasures. In 1943, Klimt's paintings were the focus of a Nazi retrospective hosted in the Secession Building (renamed at the time to 'Friedrichstrasse Gallery') in occupied Vienna. Women Friends was one of the works on display, as well as many of Klimt's other renowned works, such as The Kiss and Judith and the Head of Holofernes . [6] [7]
Following this, Klimt's works were moved to Schloss Immendorf, as well as many other paintings, books, and statues, for protection. In 1945, a fire started within the castle, destroying a majority of the works inside. Klimt's pieces were large canvases, making them even more improbable to escape the flames. The origins of the fire are mysterious, and multiple unproven hypotheses remain. [2] [8]
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Amongst his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.
Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits. The twisted body shapes and the expressive line that characterize Schiele's paintings and drawings mark the artist as an early exponent of Expressionism. Gustav Klimt, a figurative painter of the early 20th century, was a mentor to Schiele.
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expressionist movement.
The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria.
Maria Altmann was an Austrian-American Jewish refugee from Austria, who fled her home country after it was annexed to the Nazi’s Third Reich. She is noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim from the Government of Austria five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt that were stolen by the Nazis during World War II.
The Kiss is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was painted at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his "Golden Period". It was exhibited in 1908 under the title Liebespaar as stated in the catalogue of the exhibition. The painting depicts a couple embracing each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate robes decorated in a style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is an oil painting on canvas, with gold leaf, by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Viennese and Jewish banker and sugar producer. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The portrait is the final and most fully representative work of Klimt's golden phase. It was the first of two depictions of Adele by Klimt—the second was completed in 1912; these were two of several works by the artist that the family owned.
The Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings, also known as the Faculty Paintings, were a series of paintings made by Gustav Klimt for the ceiling of the University of Vienna's Great Hall between the years of 1900–1907. In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to paint the ceiling. Upon presenting his paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence, Klimt came under attack for 'pornography' and 'perverted excess' in the paintings. None of the paintings would go on display in the university.
The Beethoven Frieze is a painting by Gustav Klimt on display in the Secession Building, Vienna, Austria.
Judith and the Head of Holofernes is an oil painting by Gustav Klimt, painted in 1901. It depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading him. The beheading and its aftermath have been commonly portrayed in art since the Renaissance, and Klimt himself would paint a second work depicting the subject in 1909.
Serena (Szeréna) Pulitzer Lederer was an Austro-Hungarian art collector and the spouse of the industrial magnate August Lederer, close friend of Gustav Klimt and instrumental in the constitution of the collection of Klimt's art pieces.
Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 was an exhibition at the National Gallery, London, running from 9 October 2013 through to 12 January 2014.
Hope I is an oil painting created by Gustav Klimt in 1903. It is 189 cm x 67 cm and currently located in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. The main subject of this work is a pregnant, nude female. She is holding her hands together above her stomach and close to her chest. She gazes directly at the viewer and has a great mass of hair with a crown of forget-me-not flowers placed on her head. The scene is beautiful upon first glance but once the viewer's eyes move to the background, deathlike figures become noticeably present.
The Three Ages of Woman is a painting that was completed in Austria in 1905 by Gustav Klimt, symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.
Schloss Immendorf was a castle in the village of Immendorf near the market town of Wullersdorf in the district of Hollabrunn in the northeast of Lower Austria, within the Weinviertel region.
Seated Woman with Bent Knees is a 1917 painting in gouache, watercolor, and black crayon on paper by the Austrian Expressionist artist Egon Schiele.
Lady with a Fan was the final portrait created by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. Painted in 1917, the uncommissioned piece depicting an unidentified woman was on an easel in his studio when he died in 1918. Like many of Klimt's late works, it incorporates strong Asian influences including many Chinese motifs.
Portrait of Johanna Staude (1917–1918) is an unfinished painting by Gustav Klimt, depicting Johanna Staude, an Austrian divorcée who also modeled for Egon Schiele. She described her occupation as language teacher, and later, as a painter, although no works of her own are known. The Financial Times has described the Klimt painting as the culmination of his development as a portraitist, portraying "a new, post-war woman, self-aware, intelligent, modern, staring boldly out at us, sporting a fashionable short hair-cut and black feather boa". The painting was acquired by the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in 1963.
Schubert at the Piano was an oil-on-canvas painting by Gustav Klimt, from 1899. It depicts Austrian musician and composer Franz Schubert mid-performance. The painting shows Schubert seated at a piano surrounded by onlookers, bathed in candlelight. Klimt painted it in 1899 in the style of Art Nouveau, which focused on the use of organic shapes and flowing lines. The painting may have been commissioned in 1898 by Greek industrialist Nikolaus Dumba. In 1945, the work was destroyed in the fire at Schloss Immendorf. The image pictured is a photograph of the work.