Half-figure of a Young Woman

Half-figure of a Young Woman is a sensitive graphite drawing created by Gustav Klimt in 1918, shortly before his death. This exquisite example of the artist's draftsmanship utilizes soft, deliberate line work characteristic of his late preparatory studies. The medium, simple graphite on paper, allowed Klimt to focus intently on capturing the structure and internal life of the subject, providing crucial insight into the meticulous process often hidden beneath the elaborate ornamentation of his famous oil paintings.

Completed in the final year of his life, this work belongs to a series of highly intimate studies depicting women, a theme that remained central to the Austrian master’s oeuvre throughout his career. The half-figure of the young woman is rendered with a striking balance of academic precision in the contours and expressive looseness in the shading, demonstrating the evolution of Klimt’s technique in his final years. Drawings such as this served multiple purposes, acting both as practice sketches for future painted figures and as complete expressive works in their own right.

The intimate scale and technical immediacy distinguish this drawing from Klimt’s highly finished canvases. As a vital classification of drawing within his surviving catalog, this piece provides researchers with a record of the evolution of the female form in his modernist vision. Today, this key study is held in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it helps illustrate the technical brilliance behind his iconic imagery. The work’s visibility ensures that high-quality prints and references of this late-period masterwork are accessible for study.