Anima Rising

Forty-eight-year-old Gustav Klimt is a secondary protagonist, based on the real 19th-20th century Vienna Secession painter. Moore describes Klimt as “powerfully built,” balding with blonde hair, a short beard, and a “Puckish” smile (2). Klimt’s discovery of Judith’s body in the Danube canal is the inciting incident of the plot. Klimt’s first impulse upon seeing a dead, naked woman is to sketch her; he begins the novel valuing his art above women’s safety; this selfishness and inability to see women as people are a key elements of his character.

Klimt blends sexuality and artistic expression. He enjoys drawing women naked and in suggestive poses, hiring young models from lower socioeconomic classes and having sexual relationships with them. Nevertheless, Klimt is not as exploitative as some of the other artists in his circle. Klimt pays his models fairly, helps Wally with her rent, and is financially responsible for the children he has with the women around him. The expectations of the time period also complicate the ethics of Klimt’s sexual behavior. In his Afterword, Moore clarifies that while 21st century readers may find Klimt’s behavior troubling, “I also wanted to find a way not to see him as a villain or a predator. As much as I looked, I couldn’t find any of his contemporaries who criticized him for his habits” (371). The art community of Vienna knew about the real Klimt’s sexual connection to young women, but this was expected and not condemned.

Klimt’s character development is a journey toward a better understanding of the inequities in The Power Dynamic Between Artists and Muse. At the start of the narrative, Klimt sees little wrong about how he treats the young women in his studio. After encountering Judith, Klimt finds himself creating and respecting boundaries he never had before. When his models surprise him with a synchronized masturbatory performance, Klimt is disturbed by their agency: Before, he was the one who would pose them thus. Klimt wonders if it’s possible for him to find more depth of understanding: “Was he too old to cope with change?” (225). Nevertheless, he has trouble letting go the old hierarchy. When his models call him “Gus” instead of “Klimt” or “master,” Klimt bristles: “The way you say it, it sounds like a dog’s name” (304). Klimt’s dawning awareness of the harm he causes results in an internal shift—progress that is rewarded by Judith’s intervention on his behalf in the Underworld.

Judith’s friend, Wally, a 17-year-old model for Klimt and Egon based on a real historical figure, has red hair, blue eyes, and petite stature. Wally comes from a lower socioeconomic background, so she does modeling work for financial survival. The pragmatic Wally doesn’t romanticize art, Klimt, or Egon. Instead, Wally understands the rampant sexual exploitation that occurs around her. She expects that all male-female relationships carry the unspoken assumption of sexual exchange, wondering, for example, if Freud expects to have sex with Judith because “Wally had a jaded and often accurate view of the self-control of older gentlemen” (101). Wally’s perceptive nature makes her a humorous and observant voice throughout the novel.

Wally’s friendship with Judith is outside of this transactional power dynamic, as the two women support one another without ulterior motives. Wally connects with Judith right away. As Judith is learning who she is and where she comes from, Wally gives her space to rediscover herself without judgment. Wally relishes Judith’s strangeness; neither woman conforms to societal standards, and Judith’s unapologetic oddness reads to Wally as a measure of aspirational autonomy: “I was worried Freud would cure you and you wouldn’t want to be my friend anymore” (148). Wally views herself as an outlier as well, and worries that a “cure” would sand down Judith’s idiosyncrasies and drive a wedge between them. Wally remains a steadfast friend to Judith to the end, even accepting Judith’s connection to the supernatural as revealed in Geoff’s true wolf form. In return, Judith saves Wally from scarlet fever and gifts her immortality. Wally ends the novel strong and powerful, knowing that she now has the freedom to live on her own terms.

Egon Schiele is a secondary character; he is based on the real Expressionist painter who lived in Vienna at the same time as Gustav Klimt.

Egon functions as Klimt’s dark mirror and foil, portraying the worst excesses of the power dynamic between artist and muse. While Klimt maintains some boundaries around his sexual depravity, Egon ignores all taboos in his obsession with sexually using and humiliating his models. Egon starts working with Wally as his model after his mother kicks him out of the family home for making erotic drawings of his sister. Egon denies committing incest, but others, including Klimt and Wally, find his drawings of his sister inappropriate. Later in the narrative, he is depicted making sketches of a young pubescent girl in a state of undress, forcing Wally to adopt dehumanizing positions and be sketched during sex, and assuming that Wally will take sex vacations with him while he is married to someone else.

At the same time, Egon’s egoism coexists with deep self-loathing that the novel codes as masochistic. In the company of male artists, Egon considers himself brilliant, backhandedly insulting Klimt as passé by calling him “a true genius of a generation past” (322). However, after Wally chokes Egon to punish him for mistreating her, she realizes that Egon finds pleasure and creative drive in being hurt: “It inspired him. You know how he loves his self-loathing” (307). Egon enjoys hating himself and referring to himself as disgusting. Both his self-regard and his self-deprecation are ways of being at the center of attention.

Moore focuses on the real Egon Schiele’s cruelty to the historical Wally to depict his fictionalized version of their relationship. In his Afterword, Moore includes several of Schiele’s artworks that feature Wally. One painting “shows her desperation and his indifference. His other painting of their split is called Death and the Maiden, so he was obviously aware of the pain he caused” (x). In the novel, Egon knows that he hurts Wally when he proposes marriage to another woman, but chooses to exploit her heartache for his art, just as he exploits her body. Egon is a static character—a warning to Klimt about what he could become without awareness of how he affects the women around him.

Klimt’s friend and lover Emilie Flöge is based a historical fashion designer close to the real Gustav Klimt. Despite her acceptance of Klimt’s sexual, ethical lapses as the cost of having a relationship with him, Emilie is a staunch feminist. Moore sees her as “Coco Chanel before Coco Chanel [who] could definitely have served as an example of the possibilities for an ambitious, self-possessed woman” (373). Emilie designs clothes that push the boundaries of fashion by fitting loosely, allowing women more freedom of movement. Breaking the gender norms of the time period, Emilie runs her own fashion studio; she doesn’t marry and lives independently.

Moreover, Emilie offers access to the same kind of independence to other women, showing them the possibility of life outside of sex work or nude modeling. After she meets Wally and Judith, she asks, “Would you like a job? You can learn to be a seamstress, or work in the café, or if you’re good with figures we could teach you bookkeeping. You can wear clothes, all day if you’d like” (124). Unlike Walton, who also proposes a financially lucrative life to Judith but only in exchange for keeping her a near prisoner and siphoning her blood, Emilie does not set limits to what the women she employs do in their spare time. When Wally accepts Emilie’s job offer, she continues studying nursing, and even models for Klimt one last time.