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Bildnis von vorne, die rechte Hand am Kinn (recto); Begonnene Gesichtsstudie (verso) signed 'Gustav Klimt' (lower right) pencil with red and dark blue crayon on paper 193/4 x 123/4in. (50.2 x 32.5cm.) Executed circa 1917-1918 PROVENANCE Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner and thence by descent. LITERATURE A. Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, Vol. IV, Salzburg, 1989, no. 3700 (illustrated p. 193). NOTES Alice Strobl relates the present work to a series of preparatory studies for Klimt's portrait of Ria Munk, Damenbildnis (N. and D. no. 209; fig. 1), dated 1917-18. Ria Munk was the daughter of Alexander and Aranca Munk, the sister of Serena Lederer. The Lederers were the owners of the largest and most important collection of Klimt's paintings in Vienna, and the most prominent patrons of the artist at the beginning of the century. Serena had been a pupil of Klimt for fourteen years and was splendidly portrayed by the artist in 1899. Devastated by her daughter's early death, Aranca Lederer commissioned Klimt to produce four oils, including three posthumous portraits of Ria, the most sumptuous of which is now in the Wolfgang Gurlitt Museum in Linz (see fig. 2). A homage to the Lederers' loss, the present drawing is a finished and beautiful work of art in its own right. Drawn towards the end of his life, the work reveals Klimt's growing interest in the three-dimensional form, and exposes a new general concern for physical likeness and the personality of the sitter. Portrayed in all her beauty, the figure exudes charm and kindness, while retaining the certain mischievousness of the femme fatale, to which Klimt was so particularly attracted and so often portrayed in his oeuvre. Not all of the studies relating to Ria Munk's portrait necessarily represent the young aristocrat, as Klimt would occasionally use his models to experiment with the composition of the finished canvas. These different spontaneous visions of the subject generated a number of studies varying in the representation of Ria (see Lot 12 ), and in the emotional expression of the image and of the sitter. Thus, the present image, which does not include the detachment of earlier portraits, gives us a glimpse into the beauty and individuality of this woman from a famous and cultivated family.