Born in 1862, the son of a Viennese gold engraver, Gustav Klimt studied at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts during the period of 1876-1883. Together with his brother Ernst, he executed a number of mural commisions in the 1880s and 1890s. While these works were well received, Klimt's studies for an important commission, a series of allegorical murals for the University of Vienna were the subject of virulent criticism from the officials of the ultra-conservative Austrian state.

In 1903 Klimt travelled to Ravenna and the impact of Byzantine art caused him to abandon his early, more painterly Symbolist style. While he continued to treat allegorical themes, Klimt began to work in a two-dimensional and highly decorative manner. During these years he devoted himself to landscape and portraiture as well as allegorical subjects, and his Beethoven frieze of 1902 is a landmark of modern Austrian art. During the last ten years of his life, Klimt became increasingly reclusive, yet he was a staunch and influential supporter of some younger German expressionistic painters. Klimt suffered a stroke in 1918 and died in Vienna.

The Art Center's drawing was executed in charcoal on paper. Although undated, both in subject and style the work is typical of Klimt's drawing style of the mid-1890s. While the artist's later drawings are characterized by expressive contours, evocative chiaroscuro effects predominate in the earlier work. In addition, studies of elderly bearded men are not uncommon in Klint's work of the period. Because we view the figure from below, the work may have been a preparatory study for one of the University of Vienna murals, upon which Klimt worked often after 1893.

Source: Bulletin, May-June, 1984.