Klimt | Water Serpents II

About Water Serpents II by Gustav Klimt

Klimt worked on Water Serpents II between 1904 and 1907, then reworked it again in 1907 — a long gestation even by his standards. Four women drift horizontally across the canvas, hair streaming behind them, bodies dissolving into a current of gold, green and pattern. There is no surface, no depth and no horizon. You cannot tell whether they are floating, sinking or dreaming.

The painting belongs to his Golden Period, and it is the most frankly sensual thing he made in it. Klimt's women are not being observed by anyone; they are entirely self-absorbed, wrapped around each other in a way that Viennese critics found difficult and Viennese collectors did not. He had been painting water spirits and undines for years — the subject let him arrange bodies in ways a portrait never could.

Its later history is grim. Seized from the Jewish collector Jenny Steiner after the Anschluss, it passed through the hands of a Nazi film-maker, then out of Austria entirely. It was restituted to Steiner's heirs in 2012 and sold privately in 2013 for around US$183 million — one of the highest prices ever paid for a painting. It is now in a private collection and has not been publicly exhibited since.

Water Serpents II at a glance

• Artist: Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
• Painted: 1904–1907, Vienna
• Movement: Vienna Secession — Klimt's Golden Period
• Original: Private collection, not on public display
• Medium: Oil on canvas, 80 × 145 cm

Common questions about Water Serpents II

Own a hand-painted Water Serpents II

This is not a print. Every painting we sell is reproduced in oils on canvas, by hand, by professional artists — no giclée, no computer-generated technique.

This picture is unusually wide and shallow — nearly twice as long as it is tall — and everything in it is arranged to be read sideways, the way you read a sentence. The figures drift from one end to the other and the eye is meant to travel with them. That proportion is the composition, not a frame around it. Crop it to a conventional rectangle, as posters routinely do to fit standard sizes, and the drift stops working. Painted to order by hand, the canvas can keep the shape Klimt gave it, which is the difference between a picture of four women and a current carrying them.

• A range of sizes — choose yours above. The original is markedly wide; the composition needs that proportion and suits a long wall or a space above a bed or sofa.
• Framed and ready to hang, gallery wrap, or rolled canvas if you would rather frame it yourself.
• 30-day money-back guarantee, no questions.
• Free delivery Australia-wide. Australian owned and operated, with a local contact you can actually reach.

Framing Options: You have 3 choices

Option 1. Choose an outer frame - see images below.

You only need to choose one and the painting will be sent to you framed and ready to hang.

* Below is an example of a customer who chose the Gold Ornate frame

Option 2: Choose a Gallery Wrap Stretched Painting.

If you want the frameless modern gallery wrap look then you only need to choose Stretched Gallery Wrap from the finish option dropdown.

You receive your stretched gallery wrap painting ready to hang - with a hanging wire attached behind.

The back of the Stretched Gallery Wrap looks like the image below - it has a hanging wire!

Option 3: Choose Canvas Only if you want to frame the painting yourself.

Your painting will be sent to you in an art tube - you can then frame it yourself or take it to your local framer.