Gustav Klimt: Erotic Sketches/Erotische Skizzen (Erotic Sketchbook) [Hardcover]

Gustav Klimt (Illustrator)

Book Description

Series: Erotic Sketchbook | Publication Date: September 2005

This unique treasure of a book captures the sensual pleasure of an artist's sketchbook as well as the genius behind Klimt's vision of women. Throughout his career, Gustav Klimt completed hundreds of paintings and drawings of delicate beauty, many of them featuring the female form. Designed to imitate an artist's sketchbook, this exquisite volume focuses on the artist's most intimate erotic sketches and watercolours. The experience of viewing it awakens the senses, while affording the reader the guilty pleasure of leafing through an artist's most private visions. The stunning colour reproductions, embossed cover, and cloth spine make this a perfect gift for lovers of art and for lovers everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The books give a sense of watching the artist at work, following their trains of thought and attempts to marry the concepts of Eros and sexuality. Each book offers perfect examples of the characteristic styles of each artist as well as exhibiting a remarkable distinction in their differing approaches to the given subject'The Art Commerce Journal, April 2007

Product Details

• Hardcover: 63 pages
• Publisher: Prestel Publishing; Bilingual edition (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3791333968
• ISBN-13: 978-3791333960
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #477,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the pretty binding and ribbons., December 11, 2005

By 

B. Stockwell (San Francisco, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gustav Klimt: Erotic Sketches/Erotische Skizzen (Erotic Sketchbook) (Hardcover)

The presentation is great - I thought this would be a treat. Great binding, nice ribbon, and maybe this would make a good introduction to Klimt's erotic figure-work BUT . . .! There are only 56 drawings, most of them have been seen and reproduced in other books. An index gives specific information about the images but since the pages are unnumbered, good luck trying to match a drawing with its description.

The drawings are not in chronological order so you can't see Klimt's style change. The drawings are cut off and cropped sloppily and set on the page arbitrarily; some in the middle of the page, others shoved to the top or bottom for no particular reason. Actual image quality varies since the drawings are taken from a variety of sources; some look as if they were hastily run through Photoshop to clean them up. (But if you tell this was done, if you can SEE the digital manipulation, that doesn't say much, now does it?) Judging by the screen dots and other indicators some drawings show, a lot of these drawings were scanned from other books, run through a Photoshop-type of program to fill out the page - and not very diligently. I think the publishers were trying to be artistic. Or something. They've failed miserably.

Thames & Hudson did an Egon Schiele book a while ago that shows you CAN do this kind of thing well, at a great price and with tons of illustrations, not just 56. In April of 2006, they are going to release a Klimt book. Skip this feeble Prestel book and wait for the T&H book.

One last observation about the book at hand: the drawing on page 34 is badly placed at the bottom of the page . . . and is UPSIDE DOWN.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, July 7, 2007

By 

Rebecca L. Williams (Belleville, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Gustav Klimt: Erotic Sketches/Erotische Skizzen (Erotic Sketchbook) (Hardcover)

I bought this book because I saw the exhibit at the Musee Maillot in Paris in 2005 and stupidly didn't buy their book of the drawings as I thought I could buy it here it here in the US. (Which isn't possible). This is an extremely disappointing pick of very few of his drawings, all of which were certainly not my favorites. There were so many which better demonstrated his skill in catching the expression, the sexuality and the beauty in very few lines I am surprised at all the inclusions and the exclusions. In my mind he picked the weaker drawings. And yes, they didn't even catch an obvious drawing inserted upside down, which unfortunately states a lot since there are so few of them.