An Empowering Tale of Femme Fatales: Gustav Klimt’s Female Eroticism
“Vienna , The Laboratory of the Apocalypse”
— Karl Kraus
As the Habsburg Empires starting to collapse alongside the emerging new demands of people, Vienna around the year 1900 flowered an unparalleled cultural tumult within the creative space. A battlefield where tradition and modernity collide, this capital of Austria nurtured a cluster of progressive artists and intellectuals such as Gustav Mahler and Sigmund Freud, experimenting to modernize their fields. Though this avant-garde cultural movement confronted the attack from the city’s traditional art academy, arising fearlessly was the “Vienna Secession” — a school of young, rebellious artists who sought for liberating art from the suffocating academicism and conservatism.
In painting and also the applied arts such as textile and fashion design, a leading secessionist, Gustav Klimt, mesmerized the Viennese public with his lavish decorativism and illusionist symbolism. Aspiring to transform the society by art, Klimt channeled his reflections on desire and consciousness through canvases and murals, embedding allusions of sexuality and human psyche in his exuberantly embellished figures and patterns. Following the Successionist maxim “to art its freedom,” Klimt’s message of pleasure and sexual liberation drove him to put eroticism centerstage, particularly recognizing women’s body the leitmotif of his art.
Beyond just displaying sexuality candidly as Expressionism and Surrealism had approached, Klimt challenged the Viennese establishment by diverting from the only socially acknowledged form of nudity — the academic, idealized nude that is exemplified by Venus the goddess. He presented women as unabashedly sensuous “Femme Fatales,” an archetype of dangerously attractive women who snare men into death, so seductive that their sexual magnetism scandalized the art academy and evoked vehement controversy.
Even though some contemporary academics such as Frank Whitford interpreted Klimt’s voluptuous depiction of female nudes as misogynistic, I argue that Klimt’s provocative representations of female nudity introduced an unorthodox visual discourse of women’s sexuality into the public domain. By highlighting the complexity and autonomy of women, his work epitomized the liberating power of female sexuality which were symbolically annihilated in the art establishment of his age — he transformed women’s naked bodies into the visual conveyance of his feminist insights. Moreover, his allegorical portraits of naked Femme Fatale not only ennobled the power of female sex but also unclosed the chasm between social ideals and individual identity — a chasm that would expand and eventually propel the feminist of following generations to fight for transformation and liberation.
Klimt’s most iconic Femme Fatale, Judith in Judith I (Judith and the Head of Holofernes) represents the recurrent theme of his art — castrating women — a concept coined by his coeval psychoanalyst Freud, who profoundly inspired Klimt’s artistic fascination of sexuality and death. Echoing with the idea of “Femme Fatale,” “Castrating women” are powerful females who enact “symbolic castration” that emasculates a person, especially a male one, as depriving his dominant role and threatening him to feel weak or incapable (Thompson, 1971). Although Austrian feminism in the early twentieth century didn’t function to threat the power of men, the battle between sexes, particularly the domination of woman over man, captivated the salons. In this discussion, Klimt channeled his feminist notions through depicting this Old Testament heroine who seduced and beheaded the enemy general to rewrite the fate of her people and herself. Through the bold nudity in Judith I, Klimt underscores Judith’s governance over her own body and fate, reflecting the empowering autonomy of women that was meanwhile dissociated with the ideal, submissive femininity. In the painting, a signature technique of his remarkable “golden age,” Klimt’s use of gold and gilding clothes Judith in a dazzling “armor” which augments her suggestive power (Heller, 1971). Moreover, the exquisite ornamentation around Judith’s neck entices the audience’s attention to the very central erotic ingredients of this work — her exposed flesh from collarbone to abdomen and thinly veiled breasts under a disheveled blouse. The close-up enlargement of Judith’s face even intensifies the sensuous air in the painting: with half-closed eyes and lightly parted lips as still spelling out luring chants, her expression is flagrantly orgasmic (Thompson, 1971). Proudly dismissive, she looks down at the audience like a conqueror, gripping the head of Holofernes that she just decapitated as holding a trophy. Eros and Thanatos, the sexual and death instincts entwined in this archetype of murderous orgasm; mirrored is a woman who assertively claims the control over her sexuality, desire, and pleasure.
However, Klimt’s bewitching Judith incited tumultuous public outcry that berated him for infringing the religious taboo. The Jewish bourgeoisie condemned Klimt that the shameless and even self-enjoying nudity of Judith in painting disgraces this pious Jewish widow in the bible, who should never be displayed with a trace of pleasure while executing the murder assigned to her by heaven (Heller, 1977). I defend Klimt’s Judith I not undermining the reverence Judith deserves as the executor in God’s will since her sexual pleasure depicted further strengthens her power. Rather than a simpleminded disciple, Klimt’s Judith showcases the complexity of female sexuality and emotion by refusing to ignore her very natural instinct of sexual pleasure. She is not a sacrifice, but a ruler and a warrior, whose sword is her own sex, whose arousal of pleasure is self-directed — not to entertain but to subjugate a man. Judith exemplifies both a “Femme Fatale” and a “Femme Forte” — a courageous heroine who is not shamed by her own sexuality and willing to weaponize it in pursuit of her own goals — in this case, saving her city and people. Therefore, Klimt’s Judith sought to raise both women’s self-awareness and the public awareness of female identity as a fully capable subject of agency. Also, this pioneering artwork forwarded the society toward modernity by destigmatizing female sexuality thus facilitating the sexual liberation of women.
Furthermore, Klimt employed the eroticism of female nudity to lead the social conversation beyond the tension between sexes — in the case of Nuda Veritas, the female protagonist’s body showcases even far-reaching combat between social norm and individual truth. Named in Latin for “truth in nakedness,” Nuda Veritas portrays a nude woman who allegorically personifies the “naked truth,” standing in her self-assured and full-frontal nudity, directly absorbing every viewer by her dangerous and instinctual charm. Filled with abstract symbols and illusional brushwork, the painting is regarded as a form of rebellion against the classic realist empowered technique by then (Heller, 1977). More importantly, between her slightly touched thighs, Klimt painted a loose patch of public hairs that is as flaming red as her hair — indeed a declaration of war on the traditional ideal of beauty. As another artist Renoir denoted, the academicism constructed a binary of respectability regarding the sexual ethic in art: “A naked woman rises either from the sea or from the bed — either she Venus or Nini (Thompson, 1971).”
Here, Klimt defied the Salon tradition of “sanitizing” all naked female figures within historical or mythological allegory into hairless “Venus,” whose socially modified body was so ultimately pure that even human hairs would profane. Under the disguise of this ideal and respectable goddess is the ideology of taming women and silencing their natural desires or lust. Not Venus but Nini, Klimt’s Nuda Verita detached herself from the traditional idealization of female nudity in art, challenging the audience by her audacious yet mystic gaze in which indifference and hostility mingle. Holding a mirror toward viewers, she requests us to reflect on the text engraved at the top of the painting, by German poet Schiller: ‘If you cannot please everyone with your actions and your art, you should satisfy a few. To please many is dangerous.’ I interpret the citation of this epigram as not only Klimt’s response to all polemics against him but also his proverb for all women of the modern age to reject being caged by societal constraints and embrace their real identity. By Nuda Veritas, Klimt provided the Viennese public an unfathomable woman, a very complicated and ambivalent representation of women that embodied the complexity of female emotion, thoughts, and deed. The power, intensity, and threatening qualities of sexuality were apparently depicted in the paintings of Gustav Klimt in both cases of Judith I and Nuda Veritas, manifesting his capability of visualizing some dilemmas that resided in women of burgeoning modernity.
As aforementioned, Klimt’s allegorical paintings epitomized his eulogy of the productive force of female sexuality — a commonplace idea in the feminist sphere of the 20th century, but exceptionally novel to anti-feminists such as Weininger, who accused women the culprit of social degeneration and economic decline and he is not alone (Heller, 1977).
During the birth of Viennese modernism, social tension centralized in the field of art which candidly pitted freedom of expression against the Victorian repression overarching that era, specifically in the scope of sexuality. Austria at the end of the 19th century was characterized by its intense sexual rigidity, which has been commonly regarded as the most rigorous form of Victorian sexual morality. The middle-class bourgeoisie was violently, morally preoccupied with sexuality, particularly that of women — their sexual knowledge was deemed as naturally limited whereas the sexual interest was so fierce and wild that requires harsh regulation: Young women before marriage were morally obliged to remain chaste. Moreover, women’s private sexual explorations such as masturbation were assiduously forbidden and vilified. When the discourse of female sexuality was nailed to the pillar of sin and shame, scientific development expanded the public knowledge of sexual diseases. As the field of sexology was budding, medical researchers tried to connect sexuality to other social phenomena such as the relationship between sexuality and criminality. Accordingly, influenced by scientific authorities, the public associated sexual promiscuity to both deadly epidemics and social decadency. Meanwhile, the explicit expressions of female sexuality — the need, desire, and pleasure — were all defamed to be promiscuous. In this provocative Viennese interwar of tradition and modernity, the morality intensively derogated women and their sexuality, by which Klimt’s works were deemed misogynistic as they presenting women as sexual objects. Also, in the contemporary field of art, critics such as Frank Whitford and Lisa Fischer chastised Klimt’s works as the accomplice of misogynist rhetoric prevailed the society: they argued that Klimt exploited women’s nude body to satisfy his voyeuristic pleasure, reinforcing and disseminating the notorious image of women as owning the destructive power originated from their sex.
Accusing Klimt’s erotic depictions of women as sexist, some bolstered this charge by emphasizing Klimt’s reputation as a “Casanova” — the man who has many lovers, exploiting both women’s body and mind. The habitual womanizing of Klimt is irrefutable: Though he was never married, Klimt fathered several children, fourteen potential of them emerging after he died at 55 of a stroke induced by syphilis. However, I don’t regard Klimt’s engagement of multiple affairs with women as impairing my interpretation of his eroticism of female nudity as a feminist approach. Instead, his complicated relationship verifies Klimt’s fascination toward women’s beauty by not only devoting himself to become its disciple in art but also surrendering to be dominated under the spell of female sexuality. Also, in an age when female sexuality was perceived as a threat, Klimt’s arduous engagement in creating visual representations of counter-idealized female nudity provoked charges of obscenity, which resulted in his restriction from the public commission, a fundamental source of sustenance of artist. Thus, Klimt’s liberating eroticism of women should not be questioned as being a decisive step in the modernization of Viennese society which fostered the First Wave Feminism to blossom later.
Until today, the Femme Fatales in Klimt’s art still entrap the world not only by their ineffable charm but also by the ambiguous intention behind. Regardless of his motive, however, Klimt fulfilled the artist’s onus of destabilizing the social normativity and confronting controversies — his artworks have inspired incessant artists to continue the exploration of power and complexity of female forms. The ready tinder for revolution, Kimlt’s art enduringly beams its energy to transform the world through the tribute, reproduction, and discussion it has sparked in various art forms such as photography. At the start of this tale of glory, Klimt might hold the brush only to embody his one and utmost maxim: “To art its freedom.”
