The tranquil female figure, holding a kithara, is part of the right panel of the allegorical fresco The Beethoven frieze which Klimt painted for the Sezession exhibition held in 1902, which was centered round Max Klinger's sculpture of Beethoven. The painting shows the stages which man, and in particular the artist, has to go through during the quest for great happiness. In the end poetry manages to satisfy this desire. Poetry is symbolized by a figure inspired by paintings on vases from ancient Greece. She plays her Kithara, a sort of lyre given to mankind by the god Apollo, from which the word guitar is derived.