Portrait of Maria Munk (unfinished) 1918

Gustav Klimt began this unfinished portrait of Maria Munk with oil on canvas. The light washes of colour and tentative lines give the painting a sense of emerging, of becoming. I can feel Klimt’s hand here, searching for the form, not quite ready to commit. The background feels so joyous and vibrant. There are these bold floral motifs alongside geometric patterns and a really striking pink field, and yet the figure of Maria seems almost spectral. I wonder what Klimt was thinking. Did he find the background easier to resolve than Maria herself? Maybe he felt a pressure to perfectly capture her likeness. It's a reminder that even the greatest artists grapple with the complexities of bringing a vision to life. What I love is that we get to see the process, the struggle, and the beauty in the incomplete. It’s like glimpsing into Klimt’s mind, a backstage pass to his creative world.