Gustav Klimt

(Vienna 1862–1918)
Kompositionsentwurf für “Wasserschlangen I” (Study for the “Watersnakes I”), c. 1904, estate stamp, inscribed “Kopf Hals länger” (Head Neck longer); twice the number 13 on the reverse; black chalk and pencil on brown paper, 52 x 32 cm
Listed and illustrated:
Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, Salzburg 1982, vol. II, cat. rais. no. 1355; full page ill. p. 58

Provenance:
August (1857–1936) and Serena (1867–1943) Lederer, Vienna
Erich Lederer (1896–1985), Vienna and Geneva
Private Collection, Austria

Literature:
H.H. Hofstätter, Gustav Klimt, Erotische Zeichnungen, Köln 1979, no. 3, ill. no. 2
Alice Strobl, Wasserbilder, in: Alfred Weidinger (ed.), Gustav Klimt, Prestel Verlag, 2007, ill. 19, p. 83

Exhibition and Catalogue:
Essen, Gustav Klimt. Zeichnungen aus Albertina und Privatbesitz, Museum Folkwang, 30 January – 14 March 1976, p. 14, no. 43, ill.

In the creative process of Klimt’s parchment work Water Serpents I (1904–07), which marks the beginning of his famous Golden Style, the preparatory drawing presented here represents a significant moment. This sheet immediately precedes the earliest documented state of Water Serpents I, as captured in a photograph, which Alice Strobl dates to 1904 (Strobl II no. 1356). In various stages, Klimt would enrich the parchment work by 1907 with the subtle use of watercolour, opaque paints, and gold leaf, as well as through his refined line work. The fundamental elements of this composition, however, are already present in the preparatory drawing.

Gustav Klimt, Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I),
1904 (minor additions 1907), watercolor, gouache,
pencil, gold, silver, platinum, and brass on parchment,
50 x 20 cm, Belvedere, Vienna, Inv. no. 5077

Water Serpents I holds a special place within Klimt’s works from around 1900, in which he explores the mysterious flow of naked female underwater creatures – including the oil paintings Moving Water, Goldfish, Nymphs (Silverfish), and Water Serpents II. It is the only painted example of an explicitly erotic depiction of two women in love. Klimt addressed this taboo subject only in his drawings, with detailed studies first created in 1903/04 for Water Serpents I and Water Serpents II.

In the present drawing for Water Serpents I, Klimt thus looks in both directions: In the intimately intertwined, upright drifting female bodies, he draws from his erotic studies; at the same time, he already sketches out in broad strokes the undulating lines of the aquatic plants, the fish’s head, the octopus arm, the decorative scales of the serpent’s body, and other pictorial elements. Although the female figures in this preparatory drawing have not yet undergone the refined stylizations seen in the parchment version, they unmistakably refer to Klimt’s preference for the gaunt ideal of the body championed by Jan Toorop and George Minne. The lively note “Head Neck longer" gives us a glimpse into the artist’s thinking, as if we are looking over his shoulder.

Marian Bisanz-Prakken