Gustav Klimt

Schwebender Akt mit ausgebreiteten Armen (Studie für «Medizin») (Floating Nude with Arms Outstretched [Study for "Medicine"])

Charcoal on paper, 45,4 x 32 cm

1897/1898

Incident:

1901. Hall de la Universität Wien, Viena. 

In 1894, the Austrian government commissioned the artist to paint three paintings for the ceiling of Universität Wien’s great hall. The artworks generated great controversy and were labelled pornographic, and 87 professors at the university, who thought they were inappropriate, demanded that they not be exhibited. Floating nude with Arms Outstretched (Study for “Medicine”) is the preparatory sketch for the original canvas, which was burnt at the end of the Second World War.

Biography:

Gustav Klimt (Baumgarten, 1862 - Vienna, 1918) was a symbolist painter, father of Viennese modernism, much criticised by the conservatism of the period for the sensuality of his female portraits.