Gustav Klimt · 1904 -1907 · Belvedere
Water Snakes I: drawing, sensuality and the aquatic world
Two female bodies embrace each other in a column of hair, scales, algae and metal. On a sheet of parchment only fifty centimeters high, Klimt transforms drawing into a precious miniature and water into a space of sensual freedom.
Direct response
What really shows Water Snakes I ?
The work shows two female figures with excessively elongated bodies. They huddle together, eyes closed or lowered, while their hair and silhouettes extend into fins, scales and plant shapes. Klimt does not place the scene in a realistic sea: he constructs an imaginary environment where the skin, the animal and the ornament become almost inseparable.
The German title Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I) translates to "Friends (Water Serpents I)". The word "friends" describes their proximity without giving identity or biography to the models. The aquatic subtitle rather links them to mermaids, nymphs and hybrid beings very present in European symbolism. Klimt can thus represent an open feminine intimacy, without framing it with a precise mythological story.
Sensuality comes less from an action than from a state: abandonment, contact, sleep, floating. Bodies do not present themselves to the viewer as if on a stage. They seem to withdraw into their own world, protected by the density of patterns. This autonomy of the female gaze is one of the most modern forces of the image.
Support and technical
A parchment worked like a jewel
Water Snakes I is not a large oil on canvas. The Belvedere describes a pencil drawing on parchment, complemented by opaque water colors and bronzes of silver, copper and gold. This combination brings the sheet closer to the miniature, the illuminated manuscript and the precious decorative object.
Parchment has a firmer, denser surface than regular paper. It allows for a very clean line while giving colors interior light. Metal powders don't just represent gold: they react to lighting. Depending on the viewing angle, a fin, wick or algae changes from matte brown to a flash of light.
Klimt's trip to Ravenna in 1903 does not explain everything, but it provides essential context. In Byzantine mosaics, the golden background is neither a sky nor a wall: it is a space without natural depth. Klimt transposes this lesson into a miniature aquatic world where precious matter suspends bodies outside of time.
Guided reading
Six details to go with the flow
The composition seems decorative at first glance. However, it is very constructed: each look, each fold and each pattern leads the eye towards a specific area.
Two faces, two degrees of absence
The upper face tilts towards his companion; the bottom one turns more towards the viewer, without really meeting them. Heavy eyelids create an intermediate state between sleep, daydreaming and abandonment.
The arm as a knot
The raised arm forms a sharp angle in the middle of the curves. It stabilizes the grip, prevents the bodies from sliding out of the frame and transforms a tender gesture into geometric articulation.
Hair becomes common
Long strands quickly stop obeying gravity. They meander, divide and join the filaments of the decor. The human body begins its metamorphosis in the hair.
The turquoise fin
A cold crest cuts out the lower part. Its turquoise color separates the pink of the skin from the browns and golds, while identifying the figures as hybrid creatures rather than as two simply elongated women.
The fish eye
At the bottom of the work, a sparkling fish head stares at the viewer. This little animal gaze anchors the scene in the water and responds to almost closed human faces: what looks most directly is not the woman, but the sea creature.
Golden algae
Plant forms rise from the bottom like slow flames. They give the direction of the current, but also recall the patterns of a fabric or an illumination. At Klimt, nature and decoration speak the same language.
Before color
Drawing not only prepares the work: it invents it
More than twenty studies are associated with the painting. Klimt seeks less an academic anatomy than a precise agreement between abandonment of the model and discipline of composition.
1898 - 1907
An aquatic world built work after work
Klimt doesn't discover water with it Water Snakes I. For almost a decade, he transformed nymphs, fish and currents into laboratories of line, color and eroticism.
Moving water
The bodies advance in a dark current which no longer respects the horizontal of the landscape. The hair and waves already share the same rhythm.
Nymphs
Faces emerge from liquid darkness. Cold metal and light spots evoke the phosphorescence of the depths.
Goldfish
The body seen from behind and the provocative smile move the scene towards the viewer. The golden fish become an ironic escort.
Water Snakes II
The theme expands into a frieze. Four figures, red hair and a carpet of flowers replace the vertical concentration of the first version.
Feminine intimacy
A sensuality without imposed narrative
The two women are naked and tightly embraced. However, it would be too quick to translate this proximity into a certain biographical identity or a precise narrative scene. Klimt gives neither name, nor place, nor mythological episode. He organizes a relationship of bodies, looks and materials whose ambiguity is voluntary.
The painting belongs to a symbolist tradition which frequently associates water with seduction, dreams and danger. Sirens, naiads, Mélusine and Ophélie offer artists of the end of the 19th centurye century a vocabulary allowing the representation of the female nude outside of daily life. Klimt takes up this convention, but removes almost all the accessories from the myth. All that remains is intimacy and the liquid environment.
Contemporary reading can also highlight how the figures appear absorbed by each other. They do not play for a male audience inside the painting. Their space is enclosed, protected by ornament. This autonomy does not erase the erotic dimension of the image; it makes it less demonstrative and more difficult to reduce to a simple spectacle.
Same theme, two constructions
Water Snakes I or Water Snakes II ?
The two works are often confused. They date from the same period, but their format, technique and visual effect are very different.
| Criterion | Water Snakes I | Water Snakes II |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Vertical, 50 × 20 cm | Horizontal, approximately 80 × 145 cm |
| Support | Parchment | Canvas |
| Technique | Pencil, opaque water colors, metals | Oil on canvas |
| Figures | Two beings embracing | Four figures stretched out in a frieze |
| Effect | Dense, closed, precious miniature | Floral panorama, more narrative and expansive |
| Collection | Belvedere, Vienna | Private collection |
Pigment & Pixel
What the museum looks at beneath the surface
Belvedere recently confronted the visible work with its scientific image. This approach reminds us that a golden surface is also a fragile assembly of lines, binders, powders and retouches.
1907 · Miethke Gallery
Karl Wittgenstein pays the price for a large portrait
Klimt created most of the painting in 1904, then made slight modifications before presenting it at the Miethke Gallery in 1907. The industrialist Karl Wittgenstein then bought it for a sum comparable to that requested for one of the large portraits of the painter. The fact is revealing: the value of the work does not depend on its size.
Wittgenstein belongs to the world of the great sponsors of Viennese modernity. His daughter Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein will be portrayed by Klimt, while the family also supports architecture, music and applied arts. The purchase of this precious little sheet corresponds to a collector's culture capable of giving as much importance to an experimental object as to a monumental canvas.
The work then joined the Austrian public collections. Today, it has inventory number 5077 at Belvedere. Its history thus links Klimt's private workshop, the Viennese market of 1907, industrial patronage and the national museum.
View original
Water Snakes I at Belvedere
The work belongs to the Belvedere in Vienna. As the hanging may change, check its presence in the rooms before a trip organized especially for it.
The instructions to remember
Title: Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I)
Artist: Gustav Klimt
Date: 1904, small alterations in 1907
Dimensions: 50 × 20 cm
Support: parchment
Inventory: 5077
Looking advice
Don't look for a scene first. Look at how the line goes down, how the arm blocks movement, then how hair, fin and algae dissolve the body's boundary. Move slightly in front of the work to perceive the variations of the metallic bronzes.
The actual scale
A work much smaller than his reproductions
This photograph taken with hindsight restores what digital files make us forget: the parchment measures only 50 × 20 cm. Its narrow format appears almost like that of an enlarged illumination, surrounded by a sober frame and a large wall breath.
From a distance, the composition forms a luminous column. You must then approach to distinguish the faces, the fish, the plant threads and the metallic punctuations. This alternation between silhouette readable from a distance and precious details seen up close is an integral part of the experience of the work.
Continue with Klimt
Four additional readings
Main sources
Verifiable notices and museum studies
Date, dimensions, technique, description of aquatic figures and purchase by Karl Wittgenstein.
Fish, fin, golden algae, miniature format and relationship to animal and plant motifs.
Photograph of the work, infrared reflectography and real view of the 2025 technical exhibition.
Switching from chalk to fine pencil, Japanese paper and parallel development of the second version.
Images of the work, reflectography and exhibition are credited to the Belvedere in Vienna and used here in an editorial and documentary context. Historical reproductions from Wikimedia Commons are in the public domain according to their respective records.
Frequently asked questions
Water Snakes I in eight answers
When did Klimt direct Water Serpents I?
Most of the work was produced in 1904. Klimt made small modifications before its presentation at the Miethke Gallery in 1907.
How big is Water Snakes I?
The parchment measures 50 cm high by 20 cm wide. It is a much smaller work than reproductions suggest.
What technique did Gustav Klimt use?
Belvedere indicates pencil on parchment, opaque watery colors as well as silver, copper and gold bronzes.
Where is the painting located?
Water Snakes I belongs to the Belvedere of Vienna under inventory number 5077. As hanging may vary, it is prudent to check before a visit.
Who are the two women?
Their identities are not established. The title calls them "The Friends" and transforms them into aquatic beings close to mermaids or symbolist nymphs.
Does Water Snakes I represent a lesbian couple?
The painting can be read as an image of intimacy and desire between women, but there is no document to identify the models or present the scene as the biographical portrait of a real couple.
What's the difference with Water Serpents II?
The first version is a small vertical on parchment with two figures. The second is a large horizontal composition in oil, organized like a frieze of four women.
Why is gold important?
Metallic materials vary the surface with light, bring the work closer to a precious miniature and contribute to Klimt's transition to his golden style.
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