Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian artist who was admitted to Vienna's Kunstgewerbeschule academy at the remarkably young age of 14.  He is best known for The Kiss (shown above at left) and other groundbreaking works he did from about 1890 onward.  For our purposes, however, 

we will be looking at his early academic nudes and a study of a satyr.

 

Seated nude

This seated male nude with a staff from 1880 is an exceptional depiction of the male form, imho.

 

Peekaboo

The male form is the most striking part of this drawing, but the pronounced

 upper spine and peekaboo view between his legs are also noteworthy.

 

Interesting pose

This is one of the more interesting poses we are likely to see in an academic drawing.

I hope our resident life model David will give us his professional take on it.

 

1880

It was 1880 when Klimt drew this statuesque model from the rear.

 

Boxes

Those boxes were versatile props used by nearly all the 19th C. academies.

The model here has a little pillow for his knee.

 

Study for Satyr

This is a study for the satyr component of Klimt's 1886-87 wall painting, The Altar of Dionysos.  

It is located above one of the main staircases at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and it is one 

of those occasions where the study is better than the finished work, shown below.

 

Muscles

The well drawn muscles show the model's upper body 

to be more developed than the lower.

 

Bearded Man

This beautiful Klimt portrait drawins is known only as "Bearded Man."

 

Youthful model

The youthful model in this drawing appears to be sitting on some odd sort of cushion.

 

Red Background

The model in our second academic painting is holding a staff that Klimt 

only partially painted in, and the red background is rather striking.

 

Done at age 17

Our last Klimt drawing is dated 1879, which would have been when the artist was age 17.

I'm not surprised at the quality, given that he had been in the most prestigious 

art academy in Vienna for three years by that point.