This is the face of the woman who stares from Gustav Klimt's Whistlererian Portrait Of Sonia Knips (1898, Belvedere Gallery, Vienna). In the painting, a young woman wears an elaborate pink cake of a dress with a high ruffled neck; her left arm grips the chair as she sits forward, alert and possibly a bit wary. Guarded is the word that comes to mind when looking at her not quite looking at the viewer. When she sat for Klimt in 1898, Sonja Knips had already known the artist for several years…
Alwa Petroni
