''Hope I'' (in German, ''Die Hoffnung I'') is an oil painting created by

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...

in 1903. It is 189 cm x 67 cm and currently located in the National Gallery of Canada,

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

. The main subject of this work is a

pregnant Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occur ...

nude Nudity is the state of being in which a human is without clothing. The loss of body hair was one of the physical characteristics that marked the biological evolution of modern humans from their hominin ancestors. Adaptations related to h ...

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. The scene is beautiful upon first glance but once the viewer's eyes move to the background, deathlike figures become noticeably present.

History

Painting

In the years before this painting was made, it was uncommon to show

pregnancy in art Pregnancy in art covers any artistic work that portrays pregnancy. In art, as in life, it is often unclear whether an actual state of pregnancy is intended to be shown. A common visual indication is the gesture of the woman placing a protective ...

in Western art and

was one of the first artists who blatantly portrayed a nude pregnant female in a powerful manner. 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.Weidinger, "Gustav Klimt," 280. 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 pelvis (plural pelves or pelvises) is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the thighs (sometimes also called pelvic region), together with its embedded skeleton (sometimes also called bony pelvis, or pelvic skeleton). The p ...

. 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 Decay may refer to: Science and technology * Bit decay, in computing * Software decay, in computing * Distance decay, in geography * Decay time (fall time), in electronics Biology * Decomposition of organic matter * Tooth decay (dental caries) ...

while the three figures in the background symbolise disease,

old age Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

, and

madness Madness or The Madness may refer to: Emotion and mental health * Anger, an intense emotional response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat * Insanity, a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns * ...

. The skull behind the woman could be a reference to the art historical tradition of

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'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

The model for this painting was Herma, one of

’s favorite

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

. Klimt described Herma as "having a backside more beautiful and more intelligent than the faces of many other models."Rogoyska, "Gustav Klimt," 26. ''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

. 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''. 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

This painting may be closer to

'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 An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

. 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 ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'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. 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 Pubic hair is terminal body hair that is found in the genital area of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs and sometimes at the top of the inside of the thighs. In the pubic region around the pubis bon ...

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

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". Then during his interview with

Berta Zuckerkandl Berta Zuckerkandl-Szeps (born Bertha Szeps; 13 April 1864 – 16 October 1945)"Bertha Zuck ...

, 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." The painting was then exhibited in the second exhibition of the

Deutscher Künstlerbund The Deutscher Kuenstlerbund (Association of German Artists) was founded in 1903 the initiative of Count Harry Kessler, promoter of arts and artists, Alfred Lichtwark, director of the Hamburg Art Gallery and the famous painters Lovis Corinth, Ma ...

in 1905 in Berlin.

Notes

References

* Asenbaum, Paul, Christoph Grunenberg, Tobias G. Natter, and Gallery Liverpool Tate. ''Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life.'' London: Tate, 2008. * Kallir, Jane and Alfred Weidinger. ''Gustav Klimt: In Search of the "Total Artwork."'' New York: Prestel, 2009. * Nebehay, Christian Michael. ''Gustav Klimt: From Drawing to Painting.'' New York: H.N. Abrams, 1994. * Partsch, Susanna. ''Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women.'' New York: Prestel, 1994. * Rogoyska, Jane and Patrick Bade. ''Gustav Klimt.'' Rochester: Grange Books, 2005. * Sabarsky, Serge. ''Gustav Klimt: Drawings.'' London: G. Fraser, 1984. * Weidinger, Alfred and Marian Bisanz Prakken. ''Gustav Klimt.'' New York: Prestel, 2007.

External links

''Hope I'', 1903
The National Gallery of Canada {{Gustav Klimt Paintings by Gustav Klimt 1903 paintings Collections of the National Gallery of Canada Nude art Women in art Pregnancy in art Oil paintings Paintings about death