by Tom Gurney
Tom Gurney BSc (Hons) is an art history expert with over 20 years experience
Published on August 21, 2026 / Updated on October 23, 2026
Email: tomgurney1@gmail.com / Phone: +44 7429 011000
About The Hydra
The Hydra does not identify a separate Gustav Klimt artwork. It is an unstable online alias attached to the work the Belvedere catalogues as Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I)—Girlfriends (Water Serpents I). The museum also records the alternative title Freundinnen I. It does not list The Hydra.[1]
The distinction corrects more than a minor spelling problem. A search for the alias can suggest that Klimt painted the many-headed Hydra of Greek mythology, or that the image is a monstrous detail from his Beethoven Frieze. Neither conclusion matches the governing records. Wikidata labels the item The Hydra but simultaneously identifies it as Water Serpents I and links it to the Belvedere's exact object. Wikimedia Commons captions the same reproduction “Water Serpents I or The Hydra.”[3][4]
The image therefore leads to a real Klimt, but the name is unreliable. The exact work is Belvedere inventory 5077, dated 1904 with minor additions in 1907. It is the narrow mixed-media parchment usually known in English as Water Serpents I.[1]
At a Glance
- Is The Hydra a separate work?** NoIs The Hydra a separate work? No
- Exact objectFreundinnen (Wasserschlangen I)
- English identificationGirlfriends (Water Serpents I)
- Alternative Belvedere titleFreundinnen I
- Collection identifierBelvedere, Vienna; inventory 5077
- Date1904, with minor additions in 1907
- Dimensions50 × 20 centimetres
- Current displayListed as not displayed in August 2026[1]
- Lower-right signatureGUSTAV / KLIMT
- MediumOn parchment, Klimt combined watercolour, gouache and pencil with gold, silver, platinum and brass
- Relation to the Beethoven FriezeNone established; the frieze's programme names Typhoeus and the Gorgons, not a Hydra[2]
What Does the Belvedere Call the Work?
The Belvedere record is the strongest starting point because it belongs to the institution holding the original. Its principal title is Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I). Literally, Freundinnen means female friends or girlfriends, while Wasserschlangen means water snakes or water serpents. The museum's alternative Freundinnen I again places the relationship between the women inside the object's documented identity.[1]
The same record supplies the date, materials, size, signature and inventory number. Klimt used watercolour, gouache and pencil with four named metals—gold, silver, platinum and brass—on parchment. The result measures 50 centimetres high by 20 centimetres wide. Those unusually precise details make the identification decisive: a reproduction called The Hydra that has this narrow format and appearance is pointing to inventory 5077.[1]
According to the Belvedere, Klimt used Wasserschlangen or Nixen for the figures; the second word means nixies or water nymphs. The museum places them within a Symbolist underwater realm. Neither term is Hydra, and neither requires the figures to illustrate a named episode from ancient Greek literature.[1]
This does not mean every alternative title is automatically wrong. Works can acquire translated names, shortened labels and historical catalogue variants. The problem is evidentiary: The Hydra lacks support in the holder's exact record, while the more precise names are attached to the physical object itself.
How the Alias Circulates
Wikidata offers a clear snapshot of the collision. Its English heading is The Hydra, yet directly beneath it appears Water Serpents I. The same item records the German title Wasserschlangen I (Freundinnen I), the Belvedere location, inventory number 5077 and object identifier 3828. Its image is the familiar narrow parchment.[3]
Wikimedia Commons repeats the pattern. The file Gustav Klimt 067.jpg is captioned “Water Serpents I or The Hydra” and assigns it to the Belvedere. The file's structured data connects back to the same Wikidata item.[4]
These pages are useful evidence of transmission: they show that a person can encounter the Hydra wording through shared cultural metadata and image reuse. They are not equivalent to a museum catalogue entry. Wikidata is collaboratively edited, and Commons describes a digital file rather than cataloguing the original surface. Their metadata can also simplify or conflict with the holder's information. The Commons caption, for example, gives a shorter material description than the Belvedere's current eight-part record.[1][4]
The earliest origin of the Hydra alias is not established by these live pages. Their links show how it now travels, not who first coined it or what historical document, if any, once encouraged it. Without a secure early catalogue, inscription or institutional title, the responsible conclusion is limited: the alias circulates, and it points to Water Serpents I.
One Digital Item, Not Two Museum Objects
The numbers make the relationship unusually easy to test. 3828 is the identifier in the Belvedere collection-page address; 5077 is the museum inventory number printed in the object record. Wikidata connects its Hydra-labelled item to both the Belvedere link and inventory 5077. It is not pointing to a second museum entry concealed behind another title.[1][3]
Other metadata disagreements show why this connection must be followed back to the holder. Wikidata currently gives an inception date of 1906, imported from another Wikimedia project, while Commons describes the image broadly as dating from about 1904–07. The Belvedere gives the more exact and qualified convention: 1904, with minor additions in 1907.[1][3][4]
Materials diverge in the same way. Commons summarises tempera and watercolour on parchment. The museum records watercolour, gouache, pencil, gold, silver, platinum and brass on parchment. A shortened file caption may be adequate for finding an image, but it cannot replace the catalogue information derived from care of the original.[1][4]
This is how a misleading title can produce the illusion of another artwork. A user sees a different English heading, an approximate date and a compressed material line, then assumes those differences describe a second object. The persistent identifiers undo that illusion. Image, dimensions, collection and inventory converge on one accession.
Museum terminology needs similar care. The Belvedere categorises the object as a Gemälde, or painting, even though its support is parchment and its medium includes drawing, body colour and metal. Wikidata's description “painting by Gustav Klimt” is therefore not proof that The Hydra is a separate oil painting. Category, title and material answer different questions.
The practical test is cumulative. A title alone can wander. When holder, inventory, measurements, support and image all agree, the object identity is much harder to mistake. Here every strong anchor returns to Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I).
Why the Beethoven Frieze Is Not the Answer
The Hydra can seem plausible as a frieze subject because Klimt filled the central wall of the Beethoven Frieze with mythic and allegorical hostile powers. The Vienna Secession identifies the giant Typhoeus, the Gorgons, Lasciviousness, Wantonness, Intemperance and Gnawing Grief; its discussion of the hostile wall also names Sickness, Madness and Death.[2]
No Hydra appears in that institutional programme. Typhoeus is not another word for Hydra. In Klimt's wall he is the central giant around whom the hostile group is organised. The Gorgons are female mythological beings beside him. General family connections among monsters in ancient literature cannot turn one named figure into another or add an omitted creature to the composition.
The physical evidence makes the separation still clearer. The Beethoven Frieze is a monumental 1902 wall cycle made for the Secession's fourteenth exhibition. Since 1986 it has been displayed in a dedicated room in the building for which it was created. Water Serpents I is a 50-by-20-centimetre parchment begun two years later and held by the Belvedere.[1][2]
One is architectural and sequential; the other is a small, portable object. The fact that both include elongated or fantastic figures is not evidence that a detail has broken away from the frieze. Nor does it establish a second composition called The Hydra.
When Absence Becomes Persuasive Evidence
The fact that a single web page does not mention a title would not normally prove that the title never existed. Museum records can omit historical names, and old catalogues may preserve variants that later databases discard. The conclusion here rests on more than silence.
First, the Hydra-labelled digital item supplies positive identification with a different exact work: Water Serpents I. Second, the Belvedere publishes that object's present and alternative titles without using Hydra. Third, the Secession identifies the relevant frieze figures and wall groups without assigning the name to any of them. Finally, the dates and physical forms separate the portable 1904/07 parchment from the monumental 1902 cycle.[1][2][3]
Together these records answer both possible interpretations. If The Hydra is meant to name the reproduced image, the image is Belvedere inventory 5077. If it is meant to name a Beethoven Frieze figure, the institution's programme instead supplies Typhoeus and the Gorgons. There is no remaining evidence bridge between the two.
That does not prove the word has never appeared in any book, caption or private note. It establishes the more useful catalogue point: no distinct original has been located behind it. Until primary evidence changes that position, “Hydra” should be treated as an alias history rather than added to Klimt's list of works.
Why the Alias Changes the Way the Image Is Seen
Titles shape expectation. “Hydra” prepares a viewer to find a hostile many-headed monster and perhaps a heroic combat. The Belvedere's title instead directs attention towards two female companions imagined as water serpents or nymphs. The title collision can therefore alter the subject before the image has been examined.
Calling the pair a Hydra also risks making their closeness inherently monstrous. The exact object certainly belongs to a fantastic underwater setting, but its institutional names keep female relation and aquatic transformation together. The figures do not need to become an enemy awaiting destruction in order to be strange, erotic or Symbolist.[1]
The correction does not require replacing one rigid interpretation with another. Freundinnen can carry different shades of friendship and intimacy, while Wasserschlangen and Nixen shift between creature and woman. Those tensions belong to the documented naming field. “Hydra” imports a different myth and a different narrative structure for which no exact object evidence has been located.
Not Water Serpents II, The Sirens or Goldfish
Klimt returned repeatedly to women and aquatic forms, making title confusion easy. Water Serpents II is a separate, much larger horizontal oil painting, not a later state of the Belvedere parchment. The number “I” distinguishes two works; it does not identify the first head of a Hydra.
The Sirens is another distinct oil, currently catalogued by the Albertina as Silberfische (Nixen, Sirenen). Its shifting words—silverfish, mermaids and sirens—belong to that canvas's own catalogue history. Goldfish is likewise an independent oil with its own collection record.
Shared water, female figures or serpentine movement cannot override material identity. Collection, inventory, size, support and institutional title are the practical safeguards. For the image called The Hydra online, all those anchors return to one place: Belvedere inventory 5077.
What Is Securely Known?
The work itself is not mysterious merely because one alias is. The Belvedere securely records the original, its materials, measurements, signature, date convention and collection history. It identifies minor additions in 1907, meaning that 1904 and 1907 describe the development of one object rather than a Hydra version and a Water Serpents version.[1]
The current record also gives a dated access fact. In August 2026 the work was listed as not displayed. That status can change, so prospective visitors should check with the Belvedere rather than assuming that collection ownership guarantees a place in the galleries.[1]
What remains unsecured is the supposed title The Hydra: no Klimt inscription, Belvedere alternative title, Secession programme label or distinct accessioned artwork supports it in the records examined here. Wikidata and Commons demonstrate the alias's reach, but their own links lead back to Water Serpents I.[3][4]
The best correction is therefore simple. The Hydra is a name a reader may encounter, not an additional Klimt to add to the catalogue. The object behind it is Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I).
Frequently Asked Questions
References
Accessed August 2026.
- Belvedere, Online Collection, “Freundinnen (Wasserschlangen I)”: governing titles, 1904 date with minor 1907 additions, exact mixed medium, dimensions, signature, inventory 5077, institutional interpretation and current non-display status. View source.
- Vienna Secession, “Beethoven Frieze”: 1902 exhibition and wall-cycle history, permanent display context, institutional iconographic programme, Typhoeus, Gorgons and the named hostile powers. View source.
- Wikidata, “The Hydra” (Q2551417): collaborative English label, Water Serpents I alias, German title, Belvedere link, inventory and object identifier; cited as evidence of digital title transmission, not as the governing object catalogue. View source.
- Wikimedia Commons, “File:Gustav Klimt 067.jpg”: “Water Serpents I or The Hydra” caption, German-title metadata, Belvedere association and link to the corresponding Wikidata item; cited as reproduction-metadata evidence only. View source.
Discussion
The Hydra rewards close attention to source context, object identity and careful reproduction boundaries.
