Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt – Studies in Vienna and founding member of the Vienna Secession

Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten near Vienna on 14 July 1862. He was the second of seven children of a Bohemian gold engraver, and both of his younger brother Ernst Klimt and Georg Klimt also followed an artistic career. A scholarship enabled Gustav Klimt to attend the Vienna Arts and Crafts School under Victor Berger, Ferdinand Laufberger, Ludwig Minnigerode and Michael Rieser, to name a few, and following his studies he set up a joint studio with his brother Ernst and fellow painter Franz Matsch. Under the name Künstler-Compagnie, the young painters created curtain and ceiling paintings for diverse theaters and castles. The premature and unexpected death of Ernst led to the breakup of the artist’s group, and Gustav took in his widowed sister-in-law and niece and completed the pictures his brother had started. Gustav Klimt was involved in the founding of the Vienna Secession in 1897, standing as its first president until 1899. One example of his work includes his design of the metal doors of the Secession building erected by Josef Olbrich. 

Public dispute over the so-called faculty pictures

Gustav Klimt and his artist friend Franz Matsch received the collaborative commission to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna with four paintings. These so-called faculty pictures ignited a dispute between Klimt and Matsch, the former not being prepared to follow the conservative expectations of the professors and the press in presenting the role of the sciences in an optimistic way. The hopelessly stubborn fronts did not allow for any agreement and so it came to a final split between Klimt, Matsch and the Academy. Gustav Klimt handed over the commission, and returned any money already received with the help of a private sponsor. The designs already executed were bought back by Koloman Moser and the Lederer family. Weighty voices such as Karl Kraus spoke out on the public feud and criticised Klimt. In 1945, the three pictures fell victim to a fire in Immendorf Castle in Lower Austria which was set alight by the departing SS troops. Today, only the sketches and a few black and white photographs remain. 

Controversial Beethoven Frieze and entry to the Deutsche Künstlerbund (German Artist’s Association)

Gustav Klimt wished to redress the shame suffered over the faculty pictures as soon as possible, and so painted an important cycle of pictures in 1901 which took the form of a frieze dedicated to the composer Ludwig Van Beethoven. This so-called Beethoven Frieze was part of an exhibition project conceived by Josef Hoffmann as a ‘complete artwork’, at the centre of which was a sculpture of Beethoven designed by Max Klinger. Klimt himself understood his work as an allegory of the composer’s famous 9th Symphony. This work was heavily discussed in the press, which was comprehensively documented by Klimt’s friend Hermann Bahr in his book Gegen Klimt, published at the end of 1902. The modern eye, however, sees the Beethoven Frieze as the high point of Art Nouveau. In 1905, there was a rift with the Vienna Secession, with Klimt and other artists leaving as a result: one bone of contention was the style of painters such as Josef Engelhart, which Klimt deemed too naturalistic. While Klimt’s pictures were removed from the Secession building, he himself joined the German Artist’s Association. His personal friendships included Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann, the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops).

Gustav Klimt’s most famous work created during his Golden Period

Despite the public disputes, Gustav Klimt earned his merit as the most sought-after portrait artist of Viennese society, delighting the patronage of many rich families. Sometimes only the hands and face of the sitter were seen on the famous portraits from his Golden Period, with all other details hidden behind golden ornamentation, reflecting his father’s work as a gold engraver, as witnessed by Klimt as a child and young man. The high point of this phase was his most famous painting, The Kiss, probably depicting the artist himself and his sweetheart Emilie Flöge. Klimt was commissioned by Fritz Wärndorfer to design the wall frieze of the dining room of Palais Stoclet in Brussels, and while the artist celebrated great success and widespread recognition in other European cities, this was in contrast to his native Austria. Klimt counted Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele amongst his friends, with whom he also exhibited in Berlin. 

The artist loved and painted women, but never married

Gustav Klimt loved women but avoided relationships. He had three sons by three different models and is thought to have had over ten further children. He favoured painting the ‘sweet Viennese girls’ who did not take morality too seriously and posed for him without clothes, but there were exceptions such as the businesswoman Emilie Flöge. When Gustav Klimt once made eyes at his colleague Carl Moll’s stepdaughter, later Alma Mahler-Werfel, Moll insisted on clear intentions – which Klimt gratefully refused, saying he did not really know his own relations. Alma once noted in her diary, as biting as she was disenchanted, about her short-term admirer’s lovers: “He takes who he finds”. Gustav Klimt was not short of affairs, many of whom are known by name, while even more remain in discrete obscurity. The extent of his relationships with the wives of his clients, including illustrious names such as Adele Bloch-Bauer and Serena Lederer, is unknown.

Gustav Klimt died following a heart attack on 6 February 1918 in Vienna.