Hubbry Logo
Hope IHope IMain
Open search
Hope I
Community hub
Hope I
logo
7 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Hope I
Hope I
Hope I
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Hope I
ArtistGustav Klimt
Year1901
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions189 cm × 67 cm (74 in × 26 in)
LocationNational Gallery of Canada, Ottawa

Hope I (in German, Die Hoffnung I) is an oil painting created by Gustav Klimt in 1903. It is 189 cm x 67 cm and currently located in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. The main subject of this work is a pregnant, nude female. She is holding her hands together above her stomach and close to her chest. She gazes directly at the viewer and has a great mass of hair with a crown of forget-me-not flowers placed on her head.[1] The scene is beautiful upon first glance but once the viewer's eyes move to the background, deathlike figures become noticeably present.

History

[edit]

Painting

[edit]

In the years before this painting was made, it was uncommon to show pregnancy in art in Western art and Gustav Klimt was one of the first artists who blatantly portrayed a nude pregnant female in a powerful manner.[2] Klimt did not show this work to the public until the Second Vienna Kunstschau in 1909. The themes present in this painting are contradictory, such as birth and death. The dark figures in the background swirl around the nude female seeming to blend the idea of life, death, and rebirth.

Not only does this painting show deathly figures in the background, but there also is a sea monster standing towards the left.[3] The viewer can notice the monster's teeth along with its claw like hand that is located directly across from the woman's stomach and pelvic region. The sea monster has a large tail that wraps around the feet of the woman as if trying to capture her and continues out of the frame. Also, among the three sickly looking figures in the background, there is a skull located directly above the woman's head. This skull is attached to a blue body with varying shapes, lines, and colors. The skull represents death and decay while the three figures in the background symbolise disease, old age, and madness.[3]

The skull behind the woman could be a reference to the art historical tradition of memento mori, which serves as a reminder that death is unavoidable. This tradition focuses on the idea that you can be thriving with life (such as the nude woman is) but tomorrow could bring the possibility of death. In Hope I the theme of life, death, and rebirth relate to the similar themes behind the tradition of memento mori. In art, memento mori is often represented by a skull, which we see present in the background of Hope I.

Model

[edit]

The model for this painting was Herma, one of Gustav Klimt’s favorite models. Klimt described Herma as "having a backside more beautiful and more intelligent than the faces of many other models."[4] Hope I was created unexpectedly; one day Herma was supposed to model for Klimt and did not show up. He became concerned and eventually sent someone to see if she was sick. The response that Klimt received was that Herma was not sick, but pregnant. Klimt demanded she come into work regardless of her being pregnant and upon seeing her he decided to make her the model for Hope I.[4] It is believed that Klimt had sexual relations with nearly all his models. However, it is not known whether or not any of the pregnancies depicted in his paintings, such as Herma's, were his offspring.

Personal life

[edit]

This painting may be closer to Gustav Klimt's personal life than one might realize upon first glance. In 1902, a year before Hope I was painted, Klimt had a son, Otto Zimmermann, who died in infancy. The original sketch for the painting Hope I involved a pregnant female with a male next to her comforting her. The death of Klimt's son may have changed the theme of this painting to a memento mori motif. The man in the original sketch has been replaced by the skull figure in the final painting. There is scant documentation of Klimt's personal life, but much is known about his artistic career. Gustav Klimt was born in Austria in 1862 and at the age of fourteen received a grant to study at the Kunstgewerbeschule (The Vienna School of Art). In 1897 Klimt and his friends left the Cooperative Society of Austrian Artists and developed a new artistic movement called the Secession. He became the leader of this movement in Austria.

Klimt was an artist who broke with tradition in his depiction of nude figures. During this period Austrian artists were painting nude females, but these women often portrayed a great story or allegory and the artists covered their bodies with drapery.[5] Klimt was unafraid to depict an exposed nude female without clothing or drapery covering her. The women he depicts, such as the woman in Hope I, have curly, out-of-control hair and he dares to depict their pubic hair as well. Bodily hair, especially pubic hair, was not seen as a beautiful physical trait in women, thus Klimt showed a new way of perceiving the nude female in art with Hope I.

Controversies

[edit]

This new style of Klimt's artwork that included nude, slender, seductive females created controversy between Klimt and the Austrians. They saw Klimt's paintings as sexual and scandalous and their conservative beliefs seemed to clash with what Klimt was trying to create with his artwork. Usually the women Klimt painted were shown as beautiful, powerful, and not subjective to their male partners. This "new woman" was a shock to the people of Austria but it is also one of the reasons Gustav Klimt became such a well-known, successful artist that made a great impact in the world of art history.

Klimt intended to exhibit Hope I in November 1903 at the Vienna Secession Exhibition. He withdrew the painting on the advice of the Minister for Culture and Education. In 1905, Klimt wrote, "at the Klimt exhibition two years ago the painting could not be shown; superior powers prevented it".[6] Then during his interview with Berta Zuckerkandl, in April 1905,  he declared "Since the unfortunate State Commission, everyone in Vienna has got into the habit of blaming Minister von Hartel for all my other works, and in the end the Minister for Education must have imagined that he really carried the full responsibility. People seem to think that I was prevented from showing a certain painting in my retrospective because it might shock people. I withdrew it because l did not want to cause embarrassment to the Secession, but l myself would have defended my work."[6]

The painting was then exhibited in the second exhibition of the Deutscher Künstlerbund in 1905 in Berlin.[7]

See also

[edit]

Notes

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Hope I

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Hope I (German: Hoffnung I) is an oil-on-canvas painting by Austrian Symbolist artist , executed in 1903. The vertically oriented work measures 189.2 by 67 centimetres and resides in the in , acquired by the institution in 1970. At its core, the painting portrays a nude pregnant woman standing in profile, her eyes closed in serene introspection as she cradles her belly with one hand, embodying the theme of hope and impending motherhood. Encircling her are three ethereal female figures in flowing white gowns, suggestive of protective spirits, while above loom three grotesque, mask-like heads and a dark, horned entity evoking death and malevolence, contrasting life's generative force against existential threats. This juxtaposition underscores Klimt's exploration of beauty and vitality persisting amid ugliness and mortality, a recurring motif in his oeuvre influenced by Symbolism and the Viennese movement. The painting's intricate gold patterning and ornamental details, hallmarks of Klimt's mature style, elevate the allegorical narrative, rendering the female form as a vessel of renewal in a world shadowed by decay.

Description and Technique

Composition and Visual Elements

Hope I employs a tall, narrow vertical format measuring 189.2 by 67 centimeters, which accentuates the elongated, introspective pose of its central figure and draws attention to the subject's swollen . The composition centers on a , nude pregnant woman depicted in profile, her long red cascading down her back while her hands are clasped in a of or over her belly. Her serene expression contrasts with the surrounding elements, positioning her as the focal point amid a dense backdrop of abstract forms. Emerging from the darkened upper background are three grotesque female heads with closed eyes, interpreted visually as looming presences that encroach upon the scene, their distorted features evoking tension against the figure's composure. These heads are integrated into swirling ornamental patterns that dominate the composition, featuring intricate motifs of spirals, florals, and geometric shapes rendered in and vibrant hues, which create a sense of enveloping, ethereal movement. The use of extends across the woman's body and the surrounding space, adorning her form with decorative patches that blend skin with ornamentation, blurring boundaries between figure and ground to heighten the painting's symbolic density and visual opulence. This layering of metallic and organic elements, combined with the vertical thrust of the layout, visually conveys emergence from obscurity, with lighter tones illuminating the central figure while darker shades recede into the abstract void.

Materials and Style

Hope I is an on canvas, measuring 189.2 by 67 centimeters. The technique involves layered applications of to achieve a luminous effect in the background, where swirling ornamental patterns dominate, rendered primarily in gold and brown tones to evoke a sense of ethereal depth and jewel-like radiance. This approach contrasts sharply with the more volumetric, realistic modeling of the central female figure, whose form is depicted with anatomical precision and subtle to emphasize and . Klimt's execution in Hope I exemplifies his shift toward ornamental abstraction, incorporating flat, decorative motifs influenced by and Japanese prints, which prioritize surface pattern over perspectival illusion. These elements align with principles of organic, flowing lines and intricate embellishment, while the underlying Symbolist intent imbues the work with allegorical depth, blending erotic vitality with themes of life and menace. The deliberate tension between the figure's naturalistic rendering and the abstracted surroundings marks a departure from academic realism, favoring a decorative synthesis that heightens emotional and symbolic resonance.

Creation

Historical Context

In the 1890s, Vienna's artistic establishment, centered around the state-sponsored Künstlerhaus, upheld conservative academic standards favoring historical and classical themes over innovation. On April 3, 1897, led a group of nineteen artists in seceding from this body to form the Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs, known as the , which aimed to integrate Austrian art with international modernist currents and reject rigid institutional control. Klimt, elected as the Secession's first president, championed exhibitions featuring symbolic and decorative styles that emphasized individuality and eroticism, setting the stage for works challenging societal norms. By the early 1900s, Klimt's commissions exemplified the growing rift between artists and official culture. In 1899, he received a state contract to paint ceiling panels for the University of Vienna's Great Hall, producing by 1900, which depicted intertwined nude figures in a swirling, allegorical composition symbolizing the cycle of life and death. Exhibited at the Secession's third show, the painting drew accusations of indecency and obscurity from critics and officials, who deemed it incompatible with the university's pursuit of rational, empirical knowledge. Subsequent panels, (1901) and , intensified the backlash for their frank nudity and departure from heroic, idealized representations, culminating in Klimt's 1905 renunciation of the project and return of his advance, marking a decisive break from public patronage. Fin-de-siècle Vienna, under Emperor Franz Joseph's Habsburg regime, embodied a tension between imperial pomp and finitude, with a burgeoning intellectual scene grappling with , ethnic diversity, and psychological amid rigid Catholic-influenced moral codes. Sigmund Freud's , published in 1900, introduced concepts of the unconscious and repressed desires that resonated with the era's cultural ferment, indirectly paralleling artists' explorations of instinctual human experiences. Klimt's turn to intimate, symbolic portrayals of the female form in this period reflected broader Secessionist efforts to infuse art with personal truth over decorous convention, fostering an environment where themes of and vulnerability could emerge as acts of defiance against conservative propriety.

Development and Process

Gustav Klimt initiated the development of Hope I with extensive preparatory drawings around 1902, including studies of pregnant women observed from life models, such as "Standing Pregnant Woman in Profile," which captured the axial pose and protective hand gesture central to the final work. These sketches employed sensitive contours and ungrounded figures to evoke a timeless quality, evolving from earlier motifs like the pregnant figure in Klimt's Medicine panel (1900–1907). Additional studies focused on surrounding elements, such as skeletal death figures in "Skeleton Dressed in Long Gown," allowing Klimt to refine the composition's dramatic contrasts between life and mortality. One early drawing in blue crayon on brown paper included a male companion absent from the final version, suggesting iterative adjustments possibly influenced by personal events like the death of Klimt's son in 1902, while the painting adopted a darker tone overall compared to the lighter sketches. On canvas, Klimt established the base with an layer of red or brown paint, followed by of the central nude figure to model forms and tones with low-chroma . and silver leaf were then applied to backgrounds, robes, and decorative motifs, burnished for a luminous sheen, and overlaid with thin glazes of oil to incise intricate patterns and integrate symbolic elements like swirling hair and ethereal faces. This layered technique, characteristic of Klimt's emerging golden phase, built depth through iterative applications, enhancing the allegorical tension. The painting was completed in 1903 or early 1904.

The Model

Identity and Background

![Hope I by Gustav Klimt depicting the model Herma][float-right] The model depicted in 's Hope I (1903) is identified as Herma, a favored whom the artist employed for multiple works, including the related Hope II (1903). Klimt reportedly admired her form, commenting that she possessed "a backside more beautiful and more intelligent than many of [his] other models' faces," an anecdote reflecting his direct observation during sessions. Biographical records on Herma remain sparse, with no verified full name, birth date, or familial details preserved in contemporary documentation. She operated as a professional figure model in Vienna's artistic milieu around 1900–1903, a profession typically drawn from lower socioeconomic strata amid the city's burgeoning Secessionist scene. Nude modeling for painters like Klimt exposed women to societal disapproval, as such work blurred lines between artistic labor and perceived moral impropriety in Habsburg-era . No substantiates romantic involvement with Klimt beyond professional engagements, countering later speculative narratives.

Role and Depiction

The model for Hope I posed in studio during the advanced stages of her , enabling the artist to directly observe and render the natural contours and physical changes associated with . This approach allowed Klimt to depict the female form in a state of realistic expansion and vulnerability, diverging from the classical idealization prevalent in , which favored slender, symmetrical proportions over the tangible realities of maternity. Preparatory drawings, such as chalk studies preserved in collections like the , demonstrate Klimt's focus on anatomical details—including the swelling , protective hand positioning, and subtle musculature—integrating empirical observation with his abstracted ornamental style. In the final composition, the model appears nude and unadorned, with her hands clasped protectively over her belly and her gaze directed downward in quiet , conveying a sense of inward resilience amid life's uncertainties. This portrayal emphasized the unapologetic physicality of , positioning the figure as a of life's generative force without recourse to or concealment. Historical accounts indicate the model's involvement was voluntary; Klimt reportedly insisted on her continuing to pose despite her pregnancy-related hesitations, reflecting the professional dynamics of early 20th-century artistic studios where models often navigated personal circumstances to fulfill commissions, with no documented evidence of . Such sittings facilitated Klimt's examination of culturally taboo themes, including the sensual and maternal dimensions of the female body, by providing live references that grounded his symbolic explorations in observable human . The resulting depiction in Hope I thus owes its authenticity to the model's contribution, bridging the artist's conceptual vision with the concrete evidence of her posed form.

Reception

Initial Critical Response

Gustav Klimt completed Hope I in 1903 and intended to exhibit it at the Vienna Secession's November collective exhibition dedicated to his works. However, he withdrew the painting on the advice of Minister of Culture and Education Johannes Wilhelm Ritter von Hartel, who warned that its display would provoke a public scandal due to the prominent depiction of a nude pregnant woman. The anticipated backlash reflected traditionalist concerns over indecency, with von Hartel representing official apprehension toward the 's provocative . Viennese press coverage of the withdrawal emphasized the growing divide between artists embracing symbolic innovation and conservative bourgeois values prioritizing moral propriety in . Supporters like critic Berta Zuckerkandl, aligned with the Secession, noted Klimt's decision as a pragmatic response to ministerial pressure, highlighting praise for the work's bold thematic exploration amid the controversy. This pre-exhibition episode in late encapsulated initial critical tensions, pitting the painting's allegorical representation of hope through maternity against accusations of obscenity from establishment figures.

Public Exhibitions

initially planned to display Hope I at the Eighteenth Exhibition of the in November 1903 as part of a of his works, but withdrew the painting on the advice of the Austrian Minister for and , Joseph Maria Erdmann, to avoid anticipated controversy over its depiction of pregnancy and nudity. The work remained out of public view until its debut at the Second Kunstschau in 1909, an international organized by Klimt and his associates, where it was finally accessible to audiences despite ongoing sensitivities. Following the showing, Hope I entered private collections and saw limited public exposure for decades, reflecting the initial suppression of Klimt's more provocative pieces amid conservative cultural climates. Post-World War II, the painting's inclusion in institutional holdings marked its integration into the modernist canon; it was acquired by the in 1970 and has since been part of its permanent collection, available for public viewing in . In 2017, Hope I was featured alongside two loaned Klimt paintings—Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer (1899) and Apple Tree I (c. 1912)—in the National Gallery's European galleries, forming a temporary survey of the artist's career and drawing visitors to contextualize its themes within his oeuvre. The work has appeared in subsequent Klimt-focused retrospectives at the gallery, underscoring its enduring exhibition value without involvement in recent ownership disputes or restitutions as of 2025.

Controversies

Contemporary Backlash

The completion of Hope I in 1903 elicited immediate societal opposition in Vienna, where the painting's explicit portrayal of a nude pregnant woman was deemed obscene by conservative audiences steeped in Catholic moral traditions. This depiction conflated maternity with overt nudity, contravening prevailing norms that reserved public representations of pregnancy for modest, clothed forms to preserve familial decorum and ethical restraint. Anticipating public outrage, plans to exhibit the work at the in 1903 were abandoned, as its scandalous nudity threatened to provoke akin to prior rejections of Klimt's provocative pieces. Klimt himself acknowledged the tension, remarking that the external world surrounding the subject appeared "ugly," in stark contrast to the beauty and hope embodied within her. This withholding underscored the Secessionists' clash with institutional guardians of , who prioritized societal harmony through suppression of depictions challenging family-centric ethics. Austrian authorities, reflecting the era's puritanical oversight, reinforced such resistance through mechanisms that favored traditional values over artistic innovation, viewing the painting's candor as a direct affront to public propriety in a Catholic-influenced . The resultant non-exhibition highlighted empirical patterns of intervention, where ministerial and public pressures documented in contemporaneous disputes extended to works like Hope I, prioritizing ethical preservation over expressive freedom.

Artistic and Moral Debates

Upon its exhibition at the in 1903, Hope I provoked significant due to its depiction of a nude pregnant , which violated prevailing standards of propriety in Austrian . The painting was withdrawn from Klimt's first solo show amid objections to its bold nudity and perceived eroticism. Supporters within the movement, including Klimt's contemporaries, defended the work as a symbolic exploration of human fertility and resilience, portraying the woman as a vessel of and amid surrounding grotesqueries representing life's perils. Klimt himself described the composition as contrasting external ugliness with internal promise, emphasizing the cyclical renewal of life through procreation. Conservative critics, aligned with traditional artistic and moral norms, condemned the painting for reducing the sanctity of maternity to a sensual spectacle, arguing that its ornamental style and exposed form prioritized aesthetic provocation over reverence for reproduction's moral gravity. Such objections echoed broader resistance to Secessionist innovations, viewing them as eroding established virtues of and familial dignity in favor of subjective expressiveness. These detractors contended that the work's emphasis on undertones undermined the redemptive essence of motherhood, fostering a cultural shift away from verifiable ethical realism toward unmoored .

Legacy

Provenance and Current Location

Hope I entered the ownership of Jakob Waerndorfer, a financier who supported the , sometime after its creation in but before his bankruptcy in 1914. Following Gustav Klimt's death in 1918, the painting passed through private collections without documented involvement in Nazi-era confiscations or subsequent restitution disputes, distinguishing it from several other Klimt works such as . The acquired Hope I in 1970 through purchase, accessioned as number 16579. It has remained in the institution's permanent collection since that time, with no recorded transfers or legal challenges to its ownership as of 2025. The painting's elements, integral to Klimt's technique, have been maintained through standard institutional conservation practices focused on preserving the metallic surfaces' adhesion and luster.

Influence and Interpretations

Hope I contributed to the evolution of Symbolist and early modernist art by advancing bold representations of femininity, pregnancy, and the interplay between life and death, influencing artists who explored similar themes with greater psychological intensity. Egon Schiele, encountering Klimt in 1907, initially emulated his mentor's decorative motifs and emphasis on the erotic female form before developing a distinctive, contorted style that heightened bodily realism and emotional rawness in depictions of women. This progression reflects Klimt's role in bridging ornate Secessionist aesthetics with the more austere expressions of Viennese modernism, where themes of fertility and mortality gained prominence in works challenging academic conventions. Interpretations of the center on its allegorical contrast: the pregnant , with hands protectively cradling her , symbolizes and inner amid external threats depicted by a skeletal figure and wailing heads representing worldly ugliness. Art scholars interpret this as Klimt's assertion that life's generative potential resides biologically within the female form, transcending surrounding decay—a reading rooted in Symbolist traditions prioritizing metaphysical over literal realism. In long-term cultural discourse, the work's motif invites scrutiny of biological imperatives versus idealized narratives, particularly as empirical data reveal sustained declines in developed regions; the European Union's stood at 1.38 births per woman in 2023, well below the 2.1 replacement threshold. Perspectives emphasizing causal realism in demographics view the as affirming reproduction's foundational role in continuity, critiquing modern framings of such imagery as mere personal that overlook correlations between cultural attitudes and falling birth rates, where advancements in have not reversed sub-replacement trends. This contrasts with readings that decry potential over-romanticization, arguing the work glosses socioeconomic pressures on motherhood without empirical ties to improved outcomes in maternal or child at the time of creation.

References

  1. https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/hope-i
  2. https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/gustav-klimt
  3. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC81423/
  4. https://www.gallery.ca/bulletin/num17/dobai5.html
  5. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/klimt-s-studies-for-the-paintings-hope-i-and-hope-ii-1902–08-albertina-vienna/1gWBbjqRRa4iJA
  6. https://www.artchive.com/artwork/hope-i-gustav-klimt-1903/
  7. https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2021/04/09/gustav-klimt-hope-i/
  8. https://eclecticlight.co/2018/01/30/loving-beauty-gustav-klimt-5-textures-and-patterns/
  9. https://www.historytoday.com/archive/months-past/vienna-secession-founded
  10. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/vienna-secession/
  11. https://www.theviennasecession.com/vienna-secession/
  12. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-stories-behind-klimt-39-s-faculty-paintings-belvedere/nwWxIZNv_3ZAIA?hl=en
  13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6675541/
  14. https://elifesciences.org/articles/50016
  15. https://theamericanscholar.org/vienna-trapped-in-a-golden-age/
  16. https://files.commons.gc.cuny.edu/wp-content/blogs.dir/17799/files/2021/06/1900a.pdf
  17. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/klimt-s-studies-for-the-paintings-hope-i-and-hope-ii-1902–08-albertina-vienna/1gWBbjqRRa4iJA?hl=en
  18. https://emuseum.cornell.edu/objects/44284/study-for-hope-i
  19. https://www.canvasprintsaustralia.net.au/an-insight-into-klimts-pioneering-use-of-gold-leaf/
  20. https://www.gustav-klimt.com/Hope-I.jsp
  21. https://mhsirois.com/gustav-klimt-hope-1/
  22. https://www.wikiart.org/en/gustav-klimt/hope-i
  23. https://digitalcommons.lindenwood.edu/theses/1420/
  24. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/klimt-s-studies-for-the-paintings-hope-i-and-hope-ii-1902%25E2%2580%259308-albertina-vienna/1gWBbjqRRa4iJA?hl=en
  25. https://www.klimt-database.com/en/klimts-artworks/1901-1903/the-golden-knight-and-femmes-fatales/
  26. https://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/205/301/ic/cdc/bulletin/num17/dobai1.html
  27. https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/in-the-spotlight/loan-of-two-klimt-paintings-offer-an-unprecedented-opportunity-for
  28. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/hope-i-national-gallery-of-canada/mgVhNiaLi4CK3g?hl=en
  29. https://artuk.org/discover/stories/portraying-pregnancy-from-prehistoric-art-to-jacobean-portraiture
  30. https://www.index-journal.org/issues/secession/1900-pyrrhic-victory-the-press-campaigns-surrounding-the-faculty-paintings
  31. https://masterapollon.com/hope-i-gustav-klimt/
  32. https://www.dw.com/en/the-turbulent-history-of-klimts-nazi-seized-works/a-42163775
  33. https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79792
  34. https://serenademagazine.art/relationship-between-gustav-klimt-and-egon-schiele/
  35. https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/article/gustav-klimt-egon-schiele-giants-vienna-modernism
  36. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Fertility_statistics
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.