Kunstmuseum (formerly Gemeentemuseum), The Hague

April 30, 2015

Klimt ♦ Schiele

Judith en Edith

Gustav Klimt’s Judith and Egon Schiele’s Edith. Two top works together in a small and eclusively designed exhibition in The Hague’s Gemeentemuseum. Edith belongs to this museum and Judith came for this opportunity from Belveder Museum (Vienna). Later these museums exchanged the  works for an exhibition in Austria.

Judith I (officially), based on the biblical Judith, is presented as a femme fatal. Dressed in gold, showing one breast but a threat to men, a man-eater.
Edith was Schiele’s wife. Schiele was influenced by Klimt, but after his marriage in 1915 with Edith, his paintings became less angular, softer. Egon and Edith died of the Spanish flew in 1918.