Gustav Klimt: The Drawings

The research project on the drawings of Gustav Klimt took its first steps in 1963, starting with the comprehensive Klimt collection of the ALBERTINA Museum. This pre-eminent set of materials contains some 170 drawings from all of the artist’s creative phases. In addition, there’s the Klimt Archive with around 100 original objects - letters, photographs, original documentation (including photographs) of his works, other official documents and certificates - as well as posters.

After decades of preliminary research work, Dr. Alice Strobl was eventually able to publish her oeuvre catalogue of the complete drawings of Gustav Klimt in three volumes, between the years 1980 and 1984, followed in 1989 by a fourth, supplementary volume. In 1991 she handed over the reins to Dr. Marian Bisanz-Prakken, who had been her assistant since 1975.
The number of drawings, which can be ascribed to Gustav Klimt, continues to grow apace. Since the appearance of the supplementary volume of 1989, some 300 new originals have been found or identified worldwide.
A significant precondition for the detection of new Klimt drawings is the excellent collaboration with auction houses, galleries and private collectors, both in Austria and abroad. In terms of the research being done on Klimt’s drawings, the ALBERTINA Museum has for decades held a reputation as the internationally most important authority.