Klimt · 1913 · dream, body and circle
The Virgin of Klimt six women in a circular composition
The Virgin, or Die Jungfrau, is one of Gustav Klimt's great late paintings. Under an almost floral surface, six female bodies are tied around a sleeping young girl: desire becomes a dream, sleep becomes an inner theater, and the composition turns like a wheel of fabrics, skin and colors.
The short answer
A feminine dream transformed into a spiral of color
The Virgin de Klimt is an oil on canvas painted in 1913 and kept at the National Gallery Prague. The painting belongs to the artist's late period, after the large golden portraits: the gold has not disappeared, but the color becomes freer, more acidic, more floral.
In the center, a young woman is sleeping. Around her, several female bodies wrap around each other, fit together and seem to be born from each other. The scene is not a religious narration in the strict sense: it is an image of passage, awakening, sensuality, youth and transformation.
The strength of the painting comes from its almost circular composition. Klimt does not paint six women as in a calm group. He transforms them into a rotating movement: dresses, arms, hair and flesh form a single living mass, like a dream taking shape.
I · Circular composition
A circle of sleep, desire and metamorphosis
The composition of The Virgin based on a paradox: the painting is almost square, but everything turns there. The figures do not align; they roll up.
The sleeping girl
The central figure does not act. Her sleep opens the dream space: around her, the painting seems to represent what is happening inside.
A body wheel
Female bodies do not form a horizontal frieze. They organize themselves in curves, as if desire had centrifugal force.
Skin and fabric mingle
The boundaries between clothing, flowers, legs and arms remain deliberately ambiguous. The figure becomes decor, and the decor becomes body.
A scene without a floor
There's almost no realistic space. Klimt removes the ground to let the figures float in mental depth.
II · Six women
Why talk about six women?
The painting is often read as a set of six female bodies around the main figure. But Klimt deliberately blurs the count: the bodies overlap, hide, change orientation.
| Element | What we see | What this produces |
|---|---|---|
| The sleeper | Young woman lying with her eyes closed, head thrown back. | It sets the tone: the image is a dream more than an external scene. |
| The bodies around | Naked or partially covered women, entwined in the circle. | They represent less separate characters than feminine states: waiting, abandonment, sensuality, passage. |
| The dresses | Fabrics saturated with patterns, flowers, polka dots, spirals and flat areas. | Clothing not only hides the body: it extends and transforms it. |
| The circle | A colored mass that revolves around the center. | The gaze always returns to the virgin's sleep, then returns to the circle of bodies. |
A very Klimtian” “virge
The title should not be read as a simple image of purity. In Klimt, virginity becomes a threshold: between innocence and desire, sleep and awakening, childhood and maturity.
III · Color
After gold: purple, pink, blue and green
In The Virgin, Klimt does not give up on ornament, but he moves it. The golden period gives way to a more textile, more floral, sometimes almost expressionist color.
A saturated surface
The painting is not based on a classical perspective. It advances in layers of colors, patterns and contrasts.
Eyes closed
The pattern of sleep is also prepared in the drawings: closing the eyelids is enough to change the direction of the body.
Sailing and apparition
The female figure appears less as a portrait than as a state: fragile, dreamy, almost suspended.
IV · Related images and works
See The Virgin in the Late Klimt
These images place the painting in a family of works: preparatory drawings, entwined bodies, sleep, textile motifs and decorative sensuality.
The Virgin
The entire composition allows you to feel the circular movement: the bodies revolve around central sleep.
Half-nude study
These drawings show how Klimt seeks attitudes which will then become fragments of great composition.
Death and Life
Like The Virgin, this work organizes bodies into compact, almost cosmic masses.
Water Snakes II
The theme of fused female bodies runs through Klimt: in water, in dreams, in fabric.
Hope II
The female body is already carried there by a world of motifs, silence and symbols.
V · Where to see The Virgin?
At the National Gallery Prague, at the Veletrtzní palâc
The National Gallery Prague preserves The Virgin under inventory number O 4152, in the collection of 19th century art and classical modernism. The painting is linked to the Veletrtzní palâc, a large modern building in Prague.
The Virgin seen in situation
This photograph shows the work hung during a museum presentation. It gives an idea of its physical scale: a large, almost wall-mounted square, dense and very present.
Interior of the Veletrtzní palâc
The building offers a modern context: large volumes, circulation, light, collections from the long 19th century and modernity.
The fairgrounds
The Veletrtzní palâc does not look like an ancient museum: this modern architecture suits the late Klimt surprisingly well.
See Klimt in a modern space
The great clarity of the place contrasts with the density of The Virgin. The painting appears like a very colorful dream pocket in a museum with clean lines.
Before the visit
As always, check the hanging on the National Gallery Prague website before traveling: the collections can rotate.
Shop
Extending Virgo: Klimt, body, dream and Art Nouveau
After The Virgin, the most natural links lead to Klimt's female figures, entwined bodies, Art Nouveau and decorative compositions.
Sources
Sources used
Museum records and free files to check date, collection, dimensions, purchase history and images.
Virgin instructions
Date, technique, inventory O 4152, collection and interpretation of the work.
Google Arts & Culture /NGPThe Virgin
Context: acquisition in 1914, exhibition at the Rudolfinum and reading of the female dream.
Wikimedia CommonsImages of the Virgin
Complete work, studies and photographs related to the painting.
Wikimedia CommonsReal photo in museum
Photography of The Virgin presented in a museum situation.
Wikimedia CommonsVeletrzni palac
Actual photographs of the interior of the Prague Museum.
National Gallery PragueArt of the Long Century
Context of presentation of modern collections at the Trade Fair Palace.
Frequently asked questions
Understanding The Virgin of Klimt
When did Klimt paint The Virgin?
Gustav Klimt paints The Virgin in 1913, in its late period.
Where is The Virgin of Klimt?
The work is kept at the National Gallery Prague, at the Veletrtzní palâc, under inventory number O 4152.
Why is the table circular?
The composition revolves around the sleeping young woman. Bodies, dresses and patterns form a spiral that transforms the scene into a dream.
Are there really six women?
The painting is commonly read as a group of six female bodies, but Klimt blurs the lines between the figures. The exact count matters less than their visual fusion.
Is the title religious?
Not in the sense of a traditional religious scene. The” “virgin rather designates a symbolic threshold: youth, sleep, innocence, desire and transformation.
What work from the store should I link to this article?
The main link is The Virgins, then the collections Gustav Klimt, Art Nouveau and Symbolism.
In The Virgin, Klimt does not only paint women: he paints the moment when the body becomes a dream.
The circular composition, fabrics, colors and entwined figures make the painting one of Klimt's great late visions.
See The Virgins
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