Lot 199 : GUSTAV KLIMT
Auction Location: United Kingdom - 2001
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Description:
GUSTAV KLIMT
1862-1918
klavier spielender mann nach links (portrait of a pianist facing left)
pencil on paper
44.5 by 31.5 cm., 17 1/2 by 12 3/8 in.
Drawn circa 1896.
Provenance
Von Maltzan Gallery, London (acquired by the father of the present owner in the 1960s)
Thence by descent
The present drawing is a beautiful study of a man seated, arms outstretched, playing an unseen piano. This work belongs to a series of important studies (see: Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt, die Zeichnungen 1878-1903, Salzburg, 1980, vol. I, nos. 312-314) from the same year for Klimt's important portraits of Schubert am Klavier I & II, painted in 1898-99 (see: Fritz Novotny & Johannes Dobai, Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1975, nos. 100 & 101).
Through this sequence of preparatory studies, Klimt refined his treatment of the figure before beginning the oil version. At this stage in the development of the sequence of drawings, Klimt did not confine himself to portraying the great composer's precise features, but rather creates a more generalised portrayal of a man making music: a music as sublime but unseen as the piano at which the composer here sits.
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Dr Marian Bisanz-Prakken of the Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna
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