Portrait of a Lady in White (unfinished) 1918

Gustav Klimt made this unfinished painting with oils, and it’s now here in Vienna. It has a pretty limited palette—mostly whites and blues and blacks and browns. If you look closely, you can see a little bit of green and pink—but it’s mostly just the tones of those basic colours that make it work. Imagine Klimt at work here: he probably thought it was okay to leave this one unfinished because maybe the painting had already done its job. I love how you can see the brushstrokes and how thin the paint is. There’s a real sense of movement that he's captured in her dress, and in the almost dissolving face, which is really interesting. You know, it reminds me a little bit of Manet in the way that it's so modern and painterly, but then it also has this decorative quality that's very much Klimt. Artists are in an ongoing conversation with one another, so I always think it’s great to consider the dialogue that is taking place across time, inspiring creativity.