28 TRUDL FLÖGE (BUST PORTRAIT OF A GIRL, VIEWED FROM THE FRONT), c. 1915 TRUDL FLÖGE (MÄDCHENBRUSTBILD VON VORNE), um 1915 Pencil on paper, 559 x 368 mm Bleistift auf Papier, 559 x 368 mm Signed (lower left): gezeichnet v. Gustav Klimt (drawn by Gustav Klimt) Inscribed (lower right): Trudl Flöge Provenance: Trude Flöge (née). – Christian M. Nebehay, Vienna. – Serge Sabarsky, New York. Exhibitions: Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien, Gustav Klimt: Zeichnungen aus amerikanischem Privatbesitz ausgewählt von Serge Sabarsky und aus Beständen des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, Vienna 1984. - Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Gustav Klimt: 100 Zeichnungen, Innsbruck 1987. - Fundación Mapfre, Gustav Klimt. Mujeres, Madrid 2006, no. 8. - Hangaram Art Museum, Gustav Klimt: In Search of the ‘Total Artwork’, Seoul 2009, no. 80. Strobl, cat. rais. no. 2630
This is one of a series of drawings that Klimt created in around 1915 of Trude Flöge (1907– 1971). She was the daughter of Hermann Flöge, who was the brother of Emilie Flöge, Gustav Klimt’s lifelong companion. According to Alice Strobl, the drawn half-length portraits of the young Trude were not preliminary studies for a painting but autonomous works – possibly a souvenir of a stay at Hermann Flöge’s house in Seewalchen.1 At every stage of his development as an artist, Klimt was a precise observer and brilliant depicter of children, whether this was in the context of his life allegories or for portrait commissions. The girl’s round face, viewed from the front, was the type preferred by Klimt at this time, as exemplified in his studies for the portrait of Friederike Beer-Monti (1916). In spite of the iconic symmetry, which actually contradicts the child-like character, the portrait does not seem
frozen in any way. Within the strict structure Klimt uses very dynamic pencil strokes, ranging from the loosely sketched clothes to the dark eyes with their intense gaze. The shining, lucid child’s gaze arose from the oscillation between pale and dark nuances of grey and also incorporated the light tone of the paper. These almost painterly effects can be ascribed to the pencil strokes ranging from delicately light to richly dark tones. Klimt used a very soft pencil and he brilliantly mastered the opportunities for variation this provided, especially in later years. Das Blatt gehört zu einer Serie von Zeichnungen, die Klimt um 1915 von Trude Flöge (1907-1971) angefertigt hat. Das Mädchen war die Tochter von Hermann Flöge, dem Bruder von Emilie Flöge, der Lebensgefährtin Gustav Klimts. Alice Strobl zufolge entstanden die gezeichneten Halbbildnisse