Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) was the leading figure of the Vienna Secession. His richly ornamental paintings, using gold and decorative patterns, are among the most famous works of Art Nouveau.

From the page of Judith I

The son of a goldsmith, Gustav Klimt was born into a family of artists and studied at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. At first he painted murals on the walls of new public buildings in Vienna on official commissions, earning a very good living. But as he committed himself more and more to the avant-garde movement, this kind of work began to be in jeopardy. The last straw came in 1893, when the University of Vienna asked him to make murals on the subjects of philosophy, law and medicine. The grim and provocative series, made over several years, met with general disapproval, essentially ending the artist’s career as a muralist. After this Klimt worked on individual commissions, painting landscapes and portraits in a decorative Art Nouveau style bordering on abstraction. Reviled by the old Viennese aristocracy, Klimt was welcomed with open arms by the rising upper middle class, and with the help of this “new money” he paved the way for modern art in Austria.

From the page of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Klimt was born into an artistically gifted family of seven children. His father was a trained goldsmith, although his trade earned him too little money to provide properly for his large family. His younger brother, Ernst, was considered similarly talented; following in Klimt’s footsteps, he enrolled at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and achieved outstanding results. The two brothers later worked successfully together on many individual commissions. Another brother, Georg, was an excellent sculptor, woodcarver and pattern designer, who made wonderful made-to-measure frames for many of Klimt’s paintings.

From the page of The Kiss