Watersnakes II
by KLIMT, Gustav, Oil on canvas, 80 x 145 cm
In 1905 Klimt and a group of like-minded artists resigned from the Secession when others questioned the society’s ties with commerce. Afterwards, apart from the two Kunstschau exhibitions of 1908 and 1909, he exhibited in Vienna infrequently and started to feel increasingly isolated from the development of the Austrian avant-garde. It is also noticeable that after The Kiss and Death and Life, he embarked on no other major allegorical or narrative paintings for nearly a decade. The sole exception is The Maiden, a stylized reworking of the theme of lesbian dalliance, prefigured in Watersnakes.