Study for the Furies for the Beethoven Frieze

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt - Study for the Furies for the Beethoven Frieze
At the beginning of each of Klimt’s great works there were pencil studies of the individual figures. He used a live model for his drawings and investigated the possibilities of the human body, especially that of a woman, in various and sometimes unusual positions. He sought the ideal internal interconnection between the psychic and the physical as a parallel investigation of sex and death, with which he was familiar through his contemporary, the psychoanalyst S. Freud. He linked selected details in a decorative manner with Byzantine gilding to create a monumental work. Here it is the Beethoven Frieze, originally prepared only for the Vienna exhibition of Secession art in 1902 as a celebration of the work of the composer genius Ludwig van Beethoven.
date:
measurements: height 447 mm
width 305 mm
material: paper
technique: pencil
inscription:
inventory number: K 8703
gallery collection: Collection of Prints and Drawings