The Bride, unfinished

In January 1918 as the First World War was entering its final bitter year, the fifty-five year old Klimt was stopped by a stroke. A few weeks later he died in hospital of pneumonia. At the time he died, Klimt was working simultaneously on a large number of paintings. These unfinished canvases are extraordinarily revealing of his working methods. We see that unlike the Old Masters, he worked directly on a bare canvas without the benefit of underpaint. We can also see that he worked section by section, beginning with the faces, that are sometimes completed before surrounding sections are even begun. Bride reveals a secret that can also be divided from some of Klimt’s preparatory drawings – that beneath their gorgeous clothing, Klimt envisaged his female figures nude and in full anatomical detail, including pubic hair.

Perhaps in reaction to the horrors of the war or perhaps just reflecting his own changing attitudes, Bride like other late paintings depicts sex in purely celebratory terms and without the dark and menacing qualities of much of his earlier work.