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A baby nestles in a mass of frilly white fabric atop a colorful patchwork, perhaps a pile of quilts, against a sage and spring-green background in this square painting. The baby’s face and right hand peeks out from the mountain of fabric at the top center of the composition. The infant has ash-white skin with pink cheeks and lips, and looks down toward us with large dark eyes. The pile of fabric creates a mosaic-like mix of pattern and color with vibrant royal and baby blue, sage green, turquoise, butter yellow, and shell and salmon pink. Some patterns are outlined in black while brushstrokes swirl together in other areas. The background is mottled with cool mint and asparagus-green strokes against pale beige.
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A baby nestles in a mass of frilly white fabric atop a colorful patchwork, perhaps a pile of quilts, against a sage and spring-green background in this square painting. The baby’s face and right hand peeks out from the mountain of fabric at the top center of the composition. The infant has ash-white skin with pink cheeks and lips, and looks down toward us with large dark eyes. The pile of fabric creates a mosaic-like mix of pattern and color with vibrant royal and baby blue, sage green, turquoise, butter yellow, and shell and salmon pink. Some patterns are outlined in black while brushstrokes swirl together in other areas. The background is mottled with cool mint and asparagus-green strokes against pale beige.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Baby (Cradle)

Gustav Klimt

Date
1917/1918
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 110.9 x 110.4 cm (43 11/16 x 43 7/16 in.) framed: 116.21 x 115.89 x 6.67 cm (45 3/4 x 45 5/8 x 2 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1978.41.1
Credit line
Gift of Otto and Franziska Kallir with the help of the Carol and Edwin Gaines Fullinwider Fund
Time span
1901 to 1925
Department
CMC
Original NGA record Wikidata Print information

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • children
  • genre
  • Austrian
Provenance

(Galerie Nebehay, Vienna); sold 1919 to Otto [d. 1926] and Eugenia Primavesi, Vienna;[1] acquired 1928 with other paintings from Eugenia Primavesi by Hugo or Otto Bernatzig (or Bernatzik), Vienna. Brought to the United States by Josef Urban [1872-1933], New York.[2] (Galérie St. Etienne, New York), possibly by 1959;[3] Otto [1894-1978] and Franziska [1899-1992] Kallir, New York; acquired 1978 through gift and purchase by NGA. [1] According to Tobias G. Natter, cited in _Klimt, Schiele, Moser, Kokoschka. Vienne 1900_, Exh. cat., Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2005-2006: unnumbered catalogue. The name Sigmund Primavesi that is listed in the painting's provenance in the 1965 Guggenheim exhibition catalogue is probably an error. [2] According to Jane Kallir, _Saved from Europe: Otto Kallir and the History of the Galerie St. Etienne_, Exh. cat., Galerie St. Etienne, New York, 1999: pl. 16. [3] The Galerie St. Etienne, whose owners were Otto and Franziska Kallir, included the painting in its 1959 Klimt exhibition. Mrs. Josef Urban was listed in the catalogue as a lender, but which painting(s) she lent is not specified, so it is possible she had inherited the painting from her husband and still owned it in 1959.

NGA object ID 56662. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.