Judith I

A heroine painted as a femme fatale

In the Bible, Judith saves her people by beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes. Klimt painted her in 1901, not as a pious heroine but as a sensual, triumphant woman, her eyes half closed. The gold frame carries her name: JUDITH UND HOLOFERNES.

The painting belongs to the Belvedere in Vienna.

Half-closed eyes and parted lips

Judith tilts her head back, her eyes heavy-lidded and her lips parted. Her black hair forms a dark mass against gold trees. The expression is ambiguous: pleasure, pride, or both.

A gold jewelled collar

A wide gold collar set with stones encircles her neck, almost like a severed line. Below, a translucent blue garment partly covers her body.

The head at the edge

At the lower right, almost cut off by the frame, her hand holds the head of Holofernes, eyes closed. Like in his later Judith II, Klimt pushes the victim to the edge.

The title is worked into the frame itself, made by Klimt’s brother Georg.

The biblical story

The Book of Judith tells how the Assyrian general Holofernes besieged the Jewish town of Bethulia. Judith, a beautiful widow, went to his camp. Holofernes, attracted to her, invited her to a banquet. When he fell asleep drunk, she cut off his head with his own sword and carried it back to her people in a bag. The leaderless army fled.

For centuries, Judith was painted as a symbol of courage and virtue, a woman who defeated a tyrant. Artists such as Donatello, Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi showed her in action, often with great violence.

Vienna around 1900

Klimt painted Judith I at a time when Viennese writers and artists were fascinated by the idea of the femme fatale, the seductive and dangerous woman. Sigmund Freud was developing his theories of desire and the unconscious in the same city. Klimt’s Judith reflects this atmosphere: she is less a heroine than a figure of erotic power.

Many viewers confused her with Salome, the biblical dancer who asked for the head of John the Baptist. The frame’s inscription was meant to make clear who she is.

One of Klimt’s first gold paintings

Judith I is one of the earliest paintings in which Klimt used real gold leaf extensively. The background shows stylised trees and hills inspired by Assyrian reliefs, appropriate for the story of an Assyrian general. Judith’s wide collar of gold and jewels was a fashion of the time, and it seems to separate her head from her body, an eerie echo of the beheading.

The frame, designed by Klimt’s brother Georg, is also covered in gold and carries the title in capital letters.

Who was the model?

The face has often been linked to Adele Bloch-Bauer, the Viennese patron Klimt later painted in his famous golden portrait. This identification is popular but not proven. The model’s identity remains uncertain.

Where to see it

Judith I hangs in the Belvedere in Vienna, alongside The Kiss. Our hand-painted oil reproduction follows this composition. Klimt painted the subject again in 1909: read about Judith II (Salome). For more women in art, explore our famous paintings of women.

Questions about Judith I

Where is it?

Belvedere, Vienna.

When was it painted?

In 1901.

Why is it called Judith I?

To distinguish it from Klimt’s Judith II of 1909.

Who made the frame?

Klimt’s brother Georg Klimt.

Who designed the frame?

Klimt’s brother Georg Klimt, a metalworker and goldsmith.

Was Adele Bloch-Bauer the model?

This is often suggested, but it is not proven.

Sources and image credit

• Belvedere, Vienna: online collection
• Wikimedia Commons: Judith, Belvedere

Public-domain reproduction of Judith I (1901), via Wikimedia Commons (Belvedere). Detail images are crops of the same image; no reconstruction or upscaling.