This drawing is believed to be a study for the frieze Klimt painted in the central hall of Secession building in Vienna in 1902. The frieze was part of a group exhibition which paid tribute to Beethoven, and accompanied a controversial sculpture of the composer by Max Klinger. Klimt chose Richard Wagner’s interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as the theme for the frieze. The drawing was originally thought to show a standing woman, but it in fact relates closely to a number of similar studies of a woman lying down.