What the painting shows

Judith II by Klimt is an oil on canvas painted in 1909 that presents a tall, narrow composition dominated by a standing female figure. Measuring 178 centimeters high and 46 centimeters wide, the canvas emphasizes vertical lines from top to bottom. The woman’s pale body stretches through the center of the frame, leaning back as her dark hair rises into the upper edge.

Near the top, her head tilts sideways with dark hair, heavy eyelids, and dark red lips. Around her neck sits a distinctive collar decorated with stacked circles in white and red tones. Her bare breasts and torso are exposed above the lower drapery, set against an ornamental background of spiraling gold volutes on a reddish-brown field. Bright geometric blocks of color glow near the upper right shoulder.

Below her torso, Klimt covers the body in patterned fabrics filled with black, white, and ochre shapes, alongside small accents of blue, green, and purple. Flowing white bands curl along her hips and wrists, directing the eye downward. Her hands, adorned with bracelets, reach down to grasp the dark hair of a severed male head at the lower right. The head rests with eyes closed and a calm expression, enclosed in dark cloth and hair near the artist’s signature block at the bottom left.

The story behind it

The canvas carries a double identity, known both as Judith II and as Salome. Klimt created the oil painting in 1909, placing it squarely within his gold period. The subject depicts either the biblical figure Judith with the severed head of Holofernes or the historical figure Salome with the head of John the Baptist. Klimt deliberately played with this dual meaning, using the scene to engage with the popular typology of the man-murdering lover.

This confusion between the two figures had occurred earlier in Klimt’s career. For the frame of his earlier work Judith I, Klimt had a label inscribed with ‘Judith und Holofernes’ made because viewers had also interpreted that painting as Princess Salome. In Judith II, he returned to the theme and incorporated it into his wider exploration of symbolic allegories.

Klimt prepared large paintings like this one through numerous pencil studies and sketches, sketching whenever he liked a model’s posture. He explored many different variations of a position to find the optimal arrangement for the canvas. One study depicted a flamenco dancer striding dynamically, contrasting bare skin against a black dress trimmed with red ruffles to convey fiery excitement. In the final painting, by contrast, the woman holding the male head appears almost sober.

Where to see it

Judith II hangs inside the Ca’ Pesaro palace in Venice. The oil painting is owned by the City of Venice and remains on view within the Ca’ Pesaro collection. In 2015, the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro, announced an intention to auction the canvas to lower the city’s debt. The painting stayed in the municipal collection, where visitors can view it today.

Standing before the original in Ca’ Pesaro gives you an immediate sense of its unusual scale. The canvas stands 178 centimeters tall but measures only 46 centimeters wide, creating a narrow column of color and pattern. You can study the contrast between the woman’s smooth, pale skin and the rich gold and black shapes that frame her. To discover where this work fits within the artist’s full career, browse every Klimt painting to see his complete output across world collections.