Sitzend nach links, den Kopf nach rechts gewendet. 1903.
Black Chalk drawing.
Verso inscribed by a hand other than that of the artist. On packaging paper. 46 x 31.1 cm (18.1 x 12.2 in), size of sheet. [CH].

• Preparatory study for the famous painting "Portrait of Hermione Gallia" (1904, National Gallery, London).
• The drawings for the painting were made in several sessions at Klimt's studio.
• Instead of the facial features, the artist put focus on the posture, pose and dress of the sitter, which makes up more than a third of the image, both in our study and in the painting.
• An expression of Klimt's intensive occupation with the materiality of the then very fashionable ‘Reform’ dress.
• Klimt rendered the essence of the delicate, flowing fabric of the elegantly swinging flounce and the train made of several layers of almost translucent chiffon with a lively stroke and a rich line.
• Both in the present work and in the monumental painting, the portrayed seems to almost float above the ground due to the lightness of the material.
• At the beginning of the 20th century, Hermine and Moriz Gallia were part of the wealthy Viennese bourgeoisie. They adorned their five-storied house on Wohllebengasse with, among other things, avant-garde paintings, decorative arts from the Wiener Werkstätte and the most modern furniture by Josef Hoffmann.
• Other drawings for "Portrait of Hermine Gallia" can be found in museums like the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Neue Galerie at the Landesmuseum Joanneum in Graz.

PROVENANCE: Serge Sabarsky Collection (1912-1996), New York.
Serge Sabarsky Estate, New York (1996).
Vally Sabarsky Collection (1909-2002), New York.
Vally Sabarsky Foundation, New York.

EXHIBITION: Gustav Klimt, Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo, January 29 - February 24, 1981, cat. no. 6 (with the date 1902/03).
Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele. Dessins et Aquarelles, Salle Saint-Jean, Hôtel de Ville, Paris, June 13 - August 12, 1984, Pfalzgalerie, Kaiserslautern, August 31 - October 14, 1984, Palazzo Reale, Turin, December 15, 1984 to February 16, 1985, cat. no. 5.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Schloss Halbturn, May 3 to October 1988, Städtische Galerie Rosenheim, February 16 - April 2, 1989.
Gustav Klimt 1862-1918, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn (NY), August 26 - October 14, 1989.
Gustav Klimt, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, December 1, 1991 to March 16, 1992, cat. no. 57.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, April 14 - May 27, 1992,
Gustav Klimt, Palacu Sztuki, Cracow, June 9 - July 12, 1992.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Städtische Galerie Lovis-Kabinett, Villingen-Schwenningen, July 25 - September 27, 1992.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Drawings, Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston (SC), May 28 - June 13, 1993.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Museum moderner Kunst, Passau, June 12 - August 28, 1994.
Gustav Klimt. Dessins, Musée-Galerie de la Seita, Paris, October 5 - November 30, 1994.
Gustav Klimt. 100 kreseb, Císaiská konírna, Prague, May 24 - July 23, 1995.
Gustav Klimt. 100 Zeichnungen, Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz, June 12 - August 31, 1996, Städtische Galerie, Klagenfurt, May 22 - September 21, 1997.

LITERATURE: Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt. Die Zeichnungen, vol. I (1878-1903), Salzburg 1980, cat. no. 1053, pp. 298f. (with illu.) and pp. 292f. (with full-page illu.).
Alfred Werner, Gustav Klimt. One Hundred Drawings, New York 1972, cat. no. 46 (with illu.).