Gustav Klimt · 1916 -1917 · late work
The Dancer: portrait, costume and unfinished painting
A woman with uncovered breasts stands in an interior where kimono, bouquet, flowers and cushions almost abolish depth. Behind the decorative brilliance, however, hides a difficult story: that of a posthumous portrait of Ria Munk, transformed, taken up and then left partially open.
Direct response
What The dancer by Gustav Klimt?
The dancer, or Die Tänzerin, is a large vertical portrait painted by Gustav Klimt around 1916 -1917. The figure is standing, almost frontal, the chest bare and the body wrapped in floral fabric. However, she does not perform any identifiable steps. The word "dancer" probably describes a type of model and a new pictorial identity, more than a moment of spectacle.
The painting belongs to the late phase of Klimt, when continuous gold and perfectly closed surfaces of the golden period give way to freer colors: pinks, greens, reds, blue grays and whites placed in visible touches. The figure no longer stands out from an abstract background. She lives in an unstable interior where the table, the bouquet, the cushion and the floral panel seem to fall back on the canvas.
Its material history explains its singular appearance. According to a widely discussed hypothesis, Klimt took a second attempt at a posthumous portrait of Ria Munk and transformed her into a dancer. The Neue Galerie describes the work as unfinished because the lower third retains apparent charcoal and poorly painted passages. The Gustav Klimt Database, however, describes it as a completed or revised image in contrast to Ria Munk III, clearly remained under construction. The two formulations indicate different criteria: material condition on one side, visual autonomy on the other.
Guided reading
A human column caught in a tipping interior
The painting is constructed less by perspective than by the stacking of surfaces. The face, chest, kimono and flowers form a vertical, while the table and textiles push the space towards us.
The face as a fixed point
At the top of the composition, the face is more modeled than the rest. Dark eyes and black hairstyle stabilize a saturated environment.
Nudity cuts the pattern
The chest creates an area of fair skin between the face and clothing. This interruption prevents the figure from disappearing completely into the flowers.
The kimono connects everything
The patterns of the fabric respond to the bouquet and the wall decor. Instead of separating body and interior, the costume serves as a hinge.
The prospect hesitates
The bouquet sometimes appears placed in front of the woman, sometimes suspended at the bottom. The table stands up visually and the space becomes almost textile.
The bottom remains open
The legs and lower part are less defined. Charcoal and thin passages reveal construction under color.
Fashion, nudity and decor
The costume does not only dress the body: it constructs the picture
Klimt does not describe a dress to be identified as in a fashion catalog. It transforms the fabric into an active surface, capable of uniting the woman with the bouquet and Asian ornament.
The flowery band that envelops the woman makes the waist, hips and almost legs disappear. The body becomes a long, colorful presence, comparable to a column. This solution belongs to Klimt's late portraits: the hands and face generally remain more natural, while the clothes absorb the anatomy and diffuse the patterns in the background.
The term "kimono" is useful for describing the enveloping cut and taste of East Asia, but it is not enough to document a specific garment. Klimt assembles a visual culture: flowers, fans, textiles, prints, Japanese and Chinese objects circulated in Viennese collections and interiors. The result is a Western pictorial invention nourished by Asian models, not a faithful copy of traditional costume.
Nudity introduces another tension. The woman is neither fully dressed nor depicted as an academic nude. The open garment, frontality and absence of narrative action give the figure an almost theatrical authority. She looks at the viewer while the interior seems to unfold around her like a stage setting.
A transformed identity
Is the woman Ria Munk?
The most rigorous answer is: probably originally, but not with certainty in the final state. The painting bears the trace of a posthumous order and a metamorphosis.
Death of Maria "Ria" Munk
The young woman died at twenty-four. His parents, Alexander and Aranka Munk, asked Klimt for a posthumous portrait.
First version on the deathbed
Klimt paints Ria surrounded by flowers. The image, too directly linked to mourning for the family, does not complete the order.
A command that resists
In a map to Emilie Flöge, Klimt complains about the "Munk portrait" and the impossibility of obtaining a satisfactory resemblance.
The portrait becomes The dancer
According to an important theory, the second attempt is covered and transformed: the dead girl becomes an erotic and anonymous figure in a floral interior.
Third attempt: Ria Munk III
Klimt undertakes a new posthumous portrait, closer to a worldly effigy. His death in February 1918 interrupted him.
First American presentation
The dancer exhibited in the New York branch of the Wiener Werkstätte, becoming the first Klimt painting shown in the United States.
The right word
Why don't sources agree on incompleteness?
La Neue Galerie emphasizes visible charcoal and the incomplete lower third. The Gustav Klimt Database speaks of a "completed" image in the sense of a transformation that has become autonomous. These positions can coexist.
The bride
Fully painted bodies sit alongside large areas where the coal remains bare. Stopping work becomes immediately visible in the composition.
Adam and Eve
Eve already has her color and her carnal presence, while Adam remains ghostly. The difference in state organizes the entire meaning of the image.
Baby/The Cradle
The face is tiny atop a pyramid of tissue. The chromatic structure appears complete, but certain parts retain the freedom of a sketch.
Fan lady
The canvas sometimes remains unfinished, but its balance between figure, birds and flowers seems fully convincing. It shows that the open appearance is also a late aesthetic.
A painting can be unfinished for several reasons: the painter stops working, dies before resuming the canvas, considers certain areas sufficiently eloquent or transforms an order without closing all the passages. In The dancer, incompleteness is not a big void. It reads in the thinner bottom, charcoal contours and unresolved transitions.
The upper surface, on the other hand, is extraordinarily dense. The face, breasts, fabric, bouquet and floral panel produce a coherent image. It is this contrast which explains the double vocabulary of catalogs. Simply saying "finished" masks the visible construction site; saying "abandoned" minimizes the power of the composition. The most precise formula therefore remains: very advanced work, transformed into an autonomous image, but left partially unfinished.
1914 - 1918
What late portraits change in Klimt
The figure remains central, but the clothing, the background and the objects no longer play a secondary role. They construct a space of color that challenges classical depth.
The passage from these portraits to The dancer is not a simple evolution from dark to bright. Klimt modifies the relationship between body and decor. In orders from the beginning of the century, the model still fits into a stable system: armchair, dress, background and accessories are hierarchical. Around 1916 -1918, the limits became more porous. A kimono flower can respond to the bouquet, a wall pattern can advance to the same level as the face, a table can tilt towards the viewer.
This late painting absorbs contemporary lessons without losing its identity. The flat areas and intense colors evoke Matisse, while interest in Asian prints and objects reorients perspective. Klimt becomes neither fawn nor cubist. He uses ornament to produce his own modernity: an unstable depth where the gaze circulates without a single vanishing point.
Charcoal to oil
Incompletion makes Klimt's method visible
The Neue Galerie summarizes a particularly readable process in The dancer : Klimt first traces the charcoal composition on a prepared canvas, then develops the oil areas. He pays early attention to the face, a point of identity and presence, before gradually constructing the costume and decor.
This method explains why an interrupted portrait can appear simultaneously accurate and incomplete. The face seems almost exposeable while the bottom retains the construction site. Preparatory drawings are not always fixed shots: Klimt multiplies the pose variations, moves an arm, modifies a fabric and can transform the very identity of the image.
1 · Fix the presence
The face quickly receives values, eyes and expression capable of holding the entire composition.
2 · Extend the garment
The fabric is not filled mechanically: its patterns are adjusted to connect the figure to the frame.
3 · Recompose space
The background, the bouquet and the table are taken up until the plans between real interior and decorative carpet hesitate.
New York
Where to see The dancer today?
The Neue Galerie New York presents The dancer like a "Highlight Collection" and integrates it into its journey dedicated to Austrian masterpieces. The notice, however, indicates "Private Collection": it must be understood that it is a private work associated with the presentation of the museum, not a painting necessarily owned by the institution.
Like any private work, its exhibition may change. Before moving, check the collection page and the current hanging. The Neue Galerie is located at 1048 Fifth Avenue, New York, opposite Central Park. The Museum also preserves an exceptional collection of Klimt, including the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.
To study the Ria Munk file, complete this visit with the resources of the Gustav Klimt Database and the notice Ria Munk III. This last painting, returned to the heirs of the family in 2009 then sold in 2010, allows us to compare a posthumous image still attached to the worldly portrait to the radical transformation carried out in The dancer.
Reproduction available
Breed The dancer oil painting
Find the product sheet with the formats offered, the customization options and the hand-painted creation. The reproduction is adapted to the vertical proportions of the original painting.
Documentation
Main sources
New New York Gallery · The Dancer
Dating, private work status, unfinished lower third, charcoal method and first American exhibition in 1922.
Consult the instructions →Gustav Klimt Database · Recent years
Comparison of late portraits, Ria Munk hypothesis, interior space and status of the revised version.
Read the folder →Gustav Klimt Database · The Munk family
Posthumous commission, difficulties of Klimt, three versions and history of the restitution of Ria Munk III.
See timeline →Christie's · Portrait of Ria Munk III
History of the third version, unfinished state, provenance and assumptions regarding the transformation of the second version.
Consult the instructions →Albertina · Studies for late portraits
Preparatory drawings, variations of standing figures and relationship between line, clothing and final image.
Explore studies →Belvedere Research Journal · Johanna Staude
Scientific study of another late unfinished portrait, useful for comparing Klimt's work steps.
Read Study →Visual credits: reproductions of works by Gustav Klimt in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons, Belvedere and National Gallery of Art Open Access. Museum photographs of Ria Munk III and Johanna Staude : Daderot, CC0. Historical photographs of Klimt and Emilie Flöge: public domain. Each image is used only once in the article.
Frequently asked questions
The dancer from Klimt in eight answers
When did Klimt paint The Dancer?
The generally accepted dating is 1916 -1917. Klimt may still have recaptured certain areas before his death in February 1918.
Is the Dancer really unfinished?
Yes in the material sense: the lower third retains visible charcoal and poorly developed passages. But the upper composition is so coherent that some sources describe it as a completed or self-contained version in contrast to Ria Munk III.
Who is the woman depicted?
The painting is said to have begun as a second attempt at a posthumous portrait of Ria Munk. After transformation, the visible model could be a dancer, sometimes identified with Johanna Jusl. No final identification is completely certain.
Why is she called The Dancer?
The title probably refers to the type of model and the new identity given to the portrait. The woman does not perform any identifiable dance steps.
What are the dimensions of the table?
The notices indicate approximately 180 centimeters high and 90 centimeters wide, a very vertical format which transforms the figure into a column.
What clothing does the dancer wear?
It is wrapped in a floral fabric often described as a kimono. It is above all a pictorial invention inspired by the textiles and arts of East Asia, not a precise ethnographic survey.
What's the difference with Ria Munk III?
Ria Munk III is the third attempt at a posthumous portrait, begun in 1917 and very clearly unfinished. The Dancer would be the transformation of a second earlier version.
Where is The Dancer located?
The notice of the Neue Galerie New York indicates it in a private collection and presents it among his major works. Its hanging must be checked before a visit.
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