Gustave Klimt was born in Austria in 1862. The son of a gold engraver, Klimt grew up in poverty with six brothers and sisters in the last years Emperor Franz Joseph’s reign. At age 14 Klimt entered the School of Applied Arts, only to leave in 1883 to help support his family by taking public commissions. From the 1880s to 1890s, Klimt created several contentious murals and other public works, considered scandalous by the traditionalist Viennese art world for their innovative decorative style and often erotic themes.
In 1897, Klimt and 15 other artists broke away from the conservative Viennese Art Academy to found the Vienna Secession, with Klimt as president. The Secession was devoted to encouraging experimental and innovative art and nurturing young talent in order to bring Vienna out of its moribund past and launch it onto the international art scene.
The more personal aspects of Klimt’s life remain obscure. As is evident from his paintings, which often treat subjects such as male-female relationships and the femme fatale, Klimt appears to have been an insatiable lover of women, fathering 14 illegitimate children and having notorious affairs with prominent (and married) society women. The artist passed away from pneumonia and a stroke in 1918.
Style:
Klimt’s works are notable for their decorative elements, including the application of gold to the canvas surface and dominating geometric patterns, which bespeaks the artist’s background in the decorative arts. The Byzantine mosaics of Ravenna and Venice are also a decisive stylistic influence. The flat, compressed space in Klimt’s paintings reveals the artist’s interest in the Japanese wood-block prints so popular at the end of the century, as well as the influence of archaic art. |
Judith I
Judith I, 1907
Oil and gold on canvas, 84 x 42 cm.
Österreichische Galerie, Vienna. |
