Water Snakes, 1904-1907

Klimt’s frank exploration of female sexuality makes him seem very modern. But there are many ways in which his art is firmly rooted in the nineteenth century. It is enough to remember that in 1907, the year Klimt completed this exquisite and precious work on parchment that Picasso was working on that cornerstone of Modernism, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (the Young Ladies of Avignon), to realise that the visual language that Klimt used to the end of his life, was essentially that of the fin de siècle. The theme of the mermaid or siren was a popular one in nineteenth century art, literature and opera. Klimt would have been very familiar with Arnold Bocklin’s paintings of frolicking mermaids that were immensely famous in the German speaking world, though Böcklin’s hausfrau-like sirens are very different from Klimt’s svelte and alluring creatures.

The extreme and anatomically impossible torsion of the upper mermaid’s neck is a feature found in several of Klimt’s paintings such as The Kiss, The Virgin and the unfinished The Bride and seems to denote ecstasy.