Portrait of Johanna Staude, after Gustav Klimt's work by MadameRuiz

About "Portrait of Johanna Staude, after Gustav Klimt's work"

by MadameRuiz

About the artwork

The half-length portrait of Johanna Staude is one of the last female portraits in the oeuvre of Wiener Secession* artist Gustav Klimt. Klimt made this portrait in 1917-18.
* Wiener Secession is comparable to French Art Nouveau and German Jugendstil.

The woman, Johanna Staude was born in Vienna in 1883 as Johanna Widlicka. So she must have been here for about 34 years. During the First World War she was married to Franz Staude. Who she was or what she did as a profession is not completely clear, but it seems to be a very fashionable woman, given the short haircut and the blouse, made of a Wiener Werkstätte fabric. The fabric with blue leaves was designed by the arts and crafts student and Wiener Werkstätte employee Martha Alber. The colors contrast enormously with the red-orange background that Johanna is placed in front of. What is also immediately noticeable is the black boa of feathers around her neck. This boa immediately draws attention to her face, which is framed by a large light-dark contrast, partly due to her dark hair.

According to her own statement, Johanna Staude posed not only for Gustav Klimt. The Viennese also posed for another very well-known artist: Egon Schiele.

The portrait radiates tranquility through a very calm composition, especially for Gustav Klimt. Even though all sorts of things happen in the woman's clothing, the composition is a central composition, stretching from top to bottom. And that over a fairly straight line. Her face is quite static and only with a very small, almost invisible nod above her body. And we are used to this differently from Gustav Klimt. For example, in 'The Kiss' you see that the bodies bend in completely strange directions. Sometimes cracking is a better choice of words.

The painting is wonderfully polychrome with colors such as red, orange, blue and purple, black and beige.

The painting has been digitally 'polished' into a powerful, contemporary image. The original of this work can be found digitally under https://sammlung.belvedere.at/objects/4302/johanna-staude , inventory number 5551 and can be viewed in Museum Belvedere in Vienna.