Hope I

In the paintings of Klimt, women often appeared in position. He was familiar with the topic firsthand - after death, a dozen people claimed to be the artist’s inheritance, who considered themselves his illegitimate children.
For the canvas "Hope I" posed an employee of a brothel named Germa. Since the picture was considered obscene at the time of Klimt, it was kept for a long time by the collector, and became available to the general public in 1909. The plot of the allegory is built on oppositions.
A bright, radiant foreground contrasts with the darkness of the background; the girl’s figure seems especially defenseless and fragile against the backdrop of sinister figures and a human skull. The image of the heroine herself simultaneously embodies tenderness and passion, chastity and vice, destructive attraction and impending motherhood. And the new life that originated in her body gives hope for victory over the mortal dangers that await at every step, and the dull void of nothingness.