drawing
- Museum number
- 1974,0720.34
- Description
-
Study for a portrait of Serena Lederer; whole-length (feet truncated) turned slightly to left with arms by her side, looking to front
Conte crayon on light brown paper
- Production date
- 1898-1899
- Dimensions
-
Height: 450 millimetres
-
Width: 305 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- This drawing belongs to a group of studies for the same portrait now distributed between the Albertina and the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien. It appears to represent the penultimate stage in the evolution of the design, preceding the squared sketch in the Albertina; the other preliminary drawings depict the sitter from a frontal position and then with her arms bent behind her back. Klimt's economy of line distinguishes his draughtsmanship from that of his Viennese contemporaries, who practiced in a more academic and highly finished manner; a closer affinity exists with the work of Toulouse-Lautrec whose influence became quite explicit during the latter part of Klimt's career.
The portrait of Serena Lederer (formerly collection of Erich Lederer, Geneva; now Metropolitan Museum of Art) was first exhibited at a Vienna Secession showing of 1901. It marked the beginning of a long and profitable relationship between Klimt and the industrialist August Lederer, who amassed the most important private collection of his work in Vienna. Klimt was to paint two further family portraits in 1914 and 1915, of Baroness Bachofen-Echt, Serena Lederer's daughter (Collection of Erich Lederer, Geneva) and of her mother Charlotte Pulitzer (destroyed by fire 1945). Lederer installed the reviled ceiling painting 'Philosophy' in a room sepcially designed by Hoffmann, together with a number of Klimt's other controversial public works.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1918, Gustav Nebehay, Hotel Bristol, Vienna
1973 Oct-Nov, Piccadilly Gallery, London
1974 April-May, Spencer Samueals & Co Ltd, New York, no. 7
1976 BM, Recent Acquisitions, (no cat.)
- Acquisition date
- 1974
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1974,0720.34
