Auf dem Bauch liegender Akt nach rechts

Of his roughly four thousand surviving drawings devoted to the subject of women, Klimt’s representations of female sensuality are amongst the most remarkable of his drawing oeuvre, depicting an intimacy that could only be achieved through such a medium. His studio was infamous for its influx of lounging nude or semi-clothed models, always readily available to pose or be sketched in repose. Inspired by his friendship with Rodin, Klimt had the models move about his studio freely, observing their interactions before using quick sketches to capture poses or movements that appealed to him. This atmosphere of openness and spontaneity encouraged his models to explore themselves, and the result is an intimate treatment of female sexuality, unprecedented in its boldness.

Klimt was greatly inspired by erotic Japanese woodblock prints, yet these are not the sole inspiration for Auf dem Bauch liegender Akt nach rechts. Vienna at the turn of the century was characterised by a remarkably small, tight-knit circle of artists, writers, and scientists openly exchanging ideas. It was through these that Freud’s practice first came to Klimt’s attention, and he was very much taken with Freud’s theories on the mind and its unconscious process. Klimt fully embraced the subject of female sexuality, exploring themes of women’s drives and fantasies through his work. The female form allowed him to most fully convey complex and abstract ideas, and the medium allowed him to permeate his depictions with a quiet sensitivity to the full range of women’s sexuality.

The woman depicted in Auf dem Bauch liegender Akt nach rechts is teetering on the edge of sleep, carefully positioned horizontally across the paper to balance spatial order with the immediacy of Klimt’s observation of his model. The state between waking and dreaming was particularly fascinating to the artist, perhaps enthused by the opportunity to explore the sensual liberation that such a state provided. Sleep offered respite from the constraints of early 20^th century societal expectations. In the transient state between sleep and waking, the unconscious breaks free, and drives and desires are permitted to roam without fear of repercussions.

This liberation extends to the artist’s free handling of the pencil, which glides across the sheet. Alternating between light and dynamic contours, Klimt emphasizes the characteristics of the model’s body and the lush fabric on which she is sprawled. The relationship between the sensual and the spiritual is further emphasized by the model’s starkly accentuated closed-eyed expression, which reads equally as peaceful slumber and rapt absorption in ecstasy, creating a poignantly poetic moment. The blue of the pencil serves to heighten the ethereal quality of the scene, and the sleeping nude seems on the cusp of floating away. Despite the erotic subject matter, Klimt manages to imbue the scene with a vulnerable innocence, the figure lost in her own dreamworld.