Young Woman in Undergarments

Austrian artist Wilhelm List worked across the spectrum of the visual arts as a painter, engraver, illustrator, and watercolorist of mythological subjects, portraits and still lives. Under the leadership of Gustav Klimt, he was a co-founder in 1897 of the modernist Vienna Secession movement. Both Klimt and List were influenced by French Impressionists with their strong color, bold images, decorative pattern, luscious brushwork and images of women. Here a young model, wearing only her undergarments and black stockings, rests on a settee covered in fabric designed by Martha Alber, a designer within the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshops, a group with whom List regularly worked. Though the scene is sensual, the young woman’s look is pensive and elusive, a common characteristic of List’s women. It is possible that this model could be the same favored model, and longtime lover, of Egon Schiele — Wally Neuzil.