Gustav Klimt’s piece titled Hope II represents a pregnant woman who bows her head and closes her eyes. Gustav Klimt’s piece titled Hope II represents the pregnant woman bowing her head. The painting was painted between 1907 and 1908 years. The piece’s present location is the MoMA, the Museum of modern art, New York, USA. A painting is in the medium of oil, gold, and platinum on canvas. The work is a colorful representation of a pregnant woman who bows her head and closes her eyes. A death’s head is peeping out from behind her stomach, and at her feet, three women with lowered heads raise their hands.
After one sees the object, one can understand how it is made and its form. In the picture, the young woman bows her head as if in prayer. Her face looks exhausted, tired, and emaciated. Behind her back is a bright spot that resembles wings. Klimt uses implied lines to guide the viewer’s eye through the piece. Due to the bright, colorful elements of the clothes, the observer does not immediately notice the three women at the feet of the pregnant woman. They bow their heads in the same way as the picture’s main character, and the position of their hands suggests that they are most likely praying. A skull is visible from a pregnant woman’s belly, which differs from the whole picture, and stands out for its dullness and lifelessness. Against the background of bright clothes, the lifeless head stands out and attracts the observer’s attention with its cold gray color scheme.
The painting is called Hope II, which indicates that the artist wanted to emphasize not the doom and sadness of the death of a child but the hope of the women depicted in the painting. Despite the bright colors of the picture, it feels great sadness and pain mixed with doom and hope. The exhausted face of a pregnant woman suggests that she has been through a lot and is not ready to give up yet. In Hope II, birth, death, and the sensuality of the living exist side by side, suspended in equilibrium. Birth, death, and the sensuality of the living coexist in this work of art in harmony.
The picture conveys the heavy feelings of a parent who has lost a child. Gustav Klimt could convey these emotions masterfully because he had felt them personally since he lost his baby son (Dailey, 2019). In those years, deaths at birth and early infancy were widespread and occurred frequently. The picture makes it clear to those who live such a loss that they are not alone and that this happens to many. This picture conveys the sorrow and hopes experienced by the parent to the observer, filling him with these feelings.
Reference
Dailey, J. F. (2019). Reclaiming gustav klimt’s artwork hope ii as Vision: representations of Grief, maternity and Spirituality. Art and Art History Theses. Web.