Anima Rising

Klimt and Egon frequently draw their models, and these drawings symbolize their control and exploitation. Klimt prefers to draw his models nude and in sexual positions; he can demand this because the young women he sketches depends on him for financial survival. Wally is so used to this being required of her—“[Klimt] likes to draw us pleasuring ourselves […] I am an expert at that pose” (8)—that she even offers to pose the catatonic Judith in a sexual position for Klimt. This illustrates the degree to which she has internalized the power imbalance of modeling.

Egon’s sketches push the boundaries of his power to enact his every desire, exploiting the vulnerable for his art. He is introduced as having been kicked out of his house for drawing his sister in compromising positions. When he finds Judith naked, he immediately demands to draw her despite her lack of consent: “Maestro, may I borrow a sketch pad and an oil crayon? That drowned girl is nude in your drawing studio being licked dry by cats. I’ve never seen such a thing. I must get a sketch” (61). He abuses Wally when he draws her in Krumau in dehumanizing and demeaning positions, and he sketches the village girl Tatiana, who’s only 12 years old, in a sexually suggestive pose with “her dress unbuttoned and pulled just off her shoulders” (211).

Even when the sketches aren’t sexual, they are still a form of power. When Klimt offers to draw Kruger, he makes the otherwise commanding man insecure about his appearance: “Kruger twisted the ends of his great mustache self-consciously and brushed his eyebrows with his thumb, and it seemed to Klimt he might have even blushed” (227). Klimt distracts Kruger from his suspicion about Klimt and Judith with a drawing, which further illustrates the close relationship between sketches and control.