The Flames by Sophie Haydock

Author:Sophie Haydock [Haydock, Sophie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473588691
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2021-12-09T00:00:00+00:00

Egon works for another hour. She gazes through the windows at the overgrown garden and watches the wind blow through the deadened shrubs.

It has been a few years since Vally first showed up at Gustav Klimt’s studio. By a young age, she’d already worked her way across Vienna – as a child, tailing her mother as she collected laundry to be scrubbed and steamed, before securing her own pay behind the scenes at the opera house on the Ringstrasse, sometimes washing the feet of the singers. Later, Vally had battled long shifts, roughing her fingers in one of the city’s new factories. Positions such as these, occupied by girls such as herself, were always open to abuse. A well-meaning older friend suggested that Vally should visit an artist’s studio on Josefstädter Strasse to enquire about modelling, which is how she’d met Gustav. It wasn’t work many were willing to take on.

Modelling wasn’t much, but it was still better than becoming one of the fragile girls who serviced grunting men in alleyways. Still, Vally remembers the shame she’d felt when she’d first removed her garments, the way the feeling had dug beneath her ribs as she’d hugged her arms around her chest. A more experienced model had taken Vally under her wing, taught her how to encourage her limbs to loosen, how to allow her energy to blossom outwards. She’d stood her in front of a mirror, forced her to look herself in the eye.

These days, Klimt has other models – wealthy women and wives. Vally still sits, when she can, for him and others, but more often she finds herself fulfilling errands: riding the tram to deliver his paintings or an important message; carrying invoices or receipts back and forth between his patrons; buying paper, paint and pencils when the materials cupboard runs low, always securing a discount so she can spend the difference on her favourite sweets; arranging Gustav’s desk to his satisfaction; dusting his studio and cleaning the windows with vinegar and paper; setting up his oils according to the colour wheel she has memorized; and arranging the paintings around the room with the care of a curator. She also prepares his morning coffee and slips scraps from her plate to Katze, the atelier’s beautiful black cat.

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