Gustav Klimt - Hope, II - Google Art Project

''Hope II'' (in German, ''Die Hoffnung II'') is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold and platinum by the Austrian

symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

artist

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 ...

, made in 1907–08, depicting a pregnant woman with closed eyes. It was the second of Klimt's works to focus on a pregnant woman, both depicting Herma, one of his favourite models. It was entitled ''Vision'' by Klimt, but has become known as ''Hope II'' after the earlier work ''Hope'', which is now distinguished as ''

Hope I ''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 fe ...

''. ''Hope II'' was acquired by the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1978. Klimt painted the heavily pregnant Herma in ''Hope I'' in 1903, in which she was depicted naked. In ''Hope II'', she is wearing a long dress or cloak decorated with geometric shapes. She has long brown hair and closed eyes, bowing her head towards her bare breasts and burgeoning abdomen. An human skull representing death appears from behind her stomach – perhaps a sign of the dangers of labour, or possibly a ''

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie' The square painting measures . The women occupy the central third of the painting, with a darker gold-flecked background to either side. The woman's clothing, decorated with gold leaf like a

Byzantine art Byzantine art comprises the body of Christian Greek artistic products of the Eastern Roman Empire, as well as the nations and states that inherited culturally from the empire. Though the empire itself emerged from the decline of Rome and lasted ...

work and richly coloured and patterned, but flat like an Orthodox

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...

, contrasts with the delicately painted and contoured human faces and bare flesh, and also with the darker tones of the background. ''Hope II'' was exhibited at the first Vienna in 1908. Due to the scandalous nudity of its central figure, ''Hope I'' was not exhibited until the second Vienna Kunstschau the following year. The painting was acquired by before December 1914, and it was sold in the late 1930s by the Neue Galerie of

Otto Kallir Otto Kallir (born Otto Nirenstein, April 1, 1894, in Vienna – November 30, 1978, in New York) was an Austrian-American art historian, author, publisher and gallerist. He was awarded the Silbernes Ehrenzeichen für Verdienste um das Land Wien in ...

or his successor

Vita Künstler Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: * ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography * Vit ...

. It remained in private collections until 1978, when it was sold by

Hans Barnas Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

. It is now in the collection of the

(MOMA) in New York City, United States.

References

Gustav Klimt. ''Hope, II''. 1907–08
MOMA
Gustav Klimt. ''Hope, II''. 1907–08
MOMA multimedia
Gustav Klimt. ''Hope, II''. 1907–08
Google Arts & Culture {{DEFAULTSORT:Hope II Paintings by Gustav Klimt 1908 paintings Paintings in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) Pregnancy in art