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    • Gustav Klimt (Gustav Klimt): paintings, biography of the artist. Modern style

    20.04.2019

    Erotica is inextricably linked with art, especially fine art, the means of expression of which are visible, tangible objects - canvas, sculpture, photography. The Italian psychologist, philosopher and artist Antonio Meneghetti said: "Creating, the artist experiences moments of his sexuality, the artist, depicting someone's body, actually depicts his own eroticism." Man sculpted and painted naked bodies as early as the Paleolithic era, the ancient era is also full of sculptures praising male and female nudity, and in the latest art, eroticism has reached its culmination. One of the best representatives of high art, who was inspired by erotica, is the Austrian modernist artist Gustav Klimt, whose paintings lead the most authoritative auctions of our day.

    Gustav Klimt was one of the largest representatives of the Austrian Art Nouveau, as well as the president of " Vienna Secession”, Elected to this post in 1897 by his associates. Gustav Klimt's father, Ernest Klimt, was an artist, engraver and jeweler, and his mother, Anna Klimt, raised three sons and four daughters. The future artist was the second son in this large family. Two of his brothers also later became artists. In 1862, when Gustav was born, Austria was going through hard times. Otto von Bismarck stood at the head of Prussia, and the task of uniting the German countries was discussed. They did not want to include Austria in this German "family". Poverty reigned in the country, the political situation was unstable, and in 1866 the Prussian-Austrian war was added to all this. Family Klimt lived in dire need. The first teacher of the future artist was his father. In 1876, 14-year-old Gustav entered the Art and Craft School at the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry, where he specialized in architectural painting for 7 years. Gustav's teachers were well-known Austrian artists Karl Grakhovina, Ludwig Minnigerode, Michael Rieser, but Gustav himself at that time considered the painter of the historical genre, a follower of academicism Hans Makart, as a model. It is curious that Klimt, who received a conservative academic education, goes so far in his work, improving in a completely different style.

    Traces of academic and architectural painting on his canvases are expressed only by monumentality, a holistic composition. However, unlike other revolutionary young artists, in those years he did not oppose the old-fashioned academicism. In order to get a livelihood, Gustav and his brother paint portraits from photographs for a meager fee. After a short time, more serious customers appear. The Klimt brothers and their friend Franz Match begin to paint decorative paintings in the courtyard of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, and a year later they start painting ceilings in one of Vienna's palaces, as well as in the pavilion of the health complex in Carlsbad. These works help Gustav to gradually find his own style, and already in 1886 he actually separated from his companions, acting as an individual artist and decorator, gaining fame and authority. The set design for the Vienna Burgtheater is the team's last collaboration, although Klimt has collaborated on occasion with Franz Mutsch on occasion. Gustav Klimt finally departed from academicism, and the stylistic ideas of friends were already incompatible. In 1888, Gustav received the award " Golden cross". In the same year he becomes an honorary member of the Munich and Vienna universities. In 1889, Klimt traveled around Europe in search of new means of expression. He dreams of creating canvases and of becoming a painter. However, due to some circumstances, he has not yet been able to fulfill his dream. In 1892, Gustav's father and brother die, and the responsibility for the family falls on his shoulders. It was necessary to take care of her needs, and he began to take new orders for decorative painting in order to have a stable income.

    The loss of loved ones left a heavy imprint on the inner world of the artist: as a result of strong experiences, his style became even more original and dramatic. Internal protest was immediately reflected in his works, and it is no coincidence that in 1893 the Austrian Ministry of Culture refused to approve academicism that had departed from the principles Klimt as a professor at the Academy of Arts. At this stage of his life, the only joyful event was the acquaintance with his future wife - an Austrian fashion designer, the daughter of a major businessman Emily Flege, whom the artist depicted on his canvases. Although Klimt was never faithful in his married life, and Emily knew about his many novels, they remained inseparable until the end of the artist's life. The love that united them was much more powerful and permanent than Klimt's periodic erotic impulses. In the end, Emily realized that all this is necessary for the artist in order to create and improve. Be that as it may, until 1897 Klimt, as before, was busy painting cultural institutions. He worked not only in Austria, but also in Belgium, Hungary, Holland, the Czech Republic and other European countries.

    In 1897, a new stage began in Klimt's creative life, which was marked by a loud upheaval. Klimt founds a creative union " Secession and becomes the first chairman of this organization. Translated from German, Sezession means "separation". A group of artists led by Klimt, carried away by the spirit and principles of modernism, actually separated from the Vienna Academy of Arts and conservative circles of artists. Soon the organization began to publish its own publication called Ver Sacrum (" Sacred spring"). In a very short time, it rallied around itself European artists with modern views, who rejected outdated academicism. Ver Sacrum also became the mouthpiece of Austrian Symbolist writers. Artists " Secession"A number of stylistic commonalities were inherent: multi-colored mosaic, elegant scale, clear contours. Among the followers of this style were Josef Maria Olbrich, Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Karl Moser and others.

    Klimt himself did not have students, as a follower of his style, one can single out the talented Austrian expressionist artist Egon Schiele. While art circles continued to protest against the advent of " Secession”, Gustav Klimt, freed from academicism, enjoyed summer holidays with Emily away from the city, in the bosom of nature. He was happy, as the moment of fulfillment of his dream was approaching - to create canvases and be independent. And it was this summer that Klimt painted his first landscapes.

    Unlike the followers of the academic school, the Austrian government treated the new artists more favorably. Given the fact that numerous groups of naturalists, realists and symbolists adjoined the organization, whose voice had weight in public circles, a government for members " Secession” allocated a large plot of land in the city so that the latter built a gallery for their work. The symbol " Secession"was Pallas Athena - the goddess of wisdom, justice and the arts. Soon the organization begins to hold exhibitions. Klimt with his works also takes part in them. Ordered by the University of Vienna in 1894, the paintings that were supposed to decorate the walls of this educational institution, he completes in 1900.

    In 1899, Klimt prepared three decorative panels for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna: "", "" and "". However, these paintings are subjected to severe criticism from the public for their frank content, which called them "erotically obscene", and the canvas "" under pressure from 87 professors is removed from the exhibition halls of the gallery " Secession».

    By the way, this painting was later awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris. On all three canvases, Klimt transformed traditional allegories into new symbols, in which, in fact, there was frank eroticism ... Works Klimt criticized both by art critics and political and religious circles. He, the founder Secession”, seemed to be outside his own organization and all acceptable criteria and boundaries. Naturally, the canvases never took their place inside the walls of the university, and Klimt simply refused to work with customers. In 1945, all three works were destroyed by the Nazis. In 1899, the artist created another scandalous canvas - "".

    The naked woman in the picture is holding a mirror of truth in her hands, above which is a famous quote from the great German poet Friedrich Schiller: “If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. To be liked by many is evil. These lines reflect the whole essence of Klimt's nature. In 1902, for the gallery "Secession" Klimt creates a fresco "" based on the composer's famous Ninth Symphony. The work is exhibited during the life of the artist only once, the second time it becomes available to the public today - in 1986.

    The early 1900s is considered the golden period in Klimt's creative activity. It was during these years that his true greatness is most fully manifested and his best canvases are born. Curiously, even critics during this period become more supportive of the artist's work. Art critics give the definition of the “golden period” not only figuratively, but also literally: during these years, Klimt uses the golden color in large quantities. The most famous works of this period are "", "", "", "", "", "", " Golden Adele».


    The canvas "" the artist sold to the Rome Museum of Modern Art, "" - to the Austrian National Gallery.

    Klimt's feminine ideal changes along with his work. It seems that at the beginning of the artist's journey, rather, he is attracted by a generalized antique image. In his early work, women are like statues standing in classical poses. The pencil line is continuous, tense. Nevertheless, hidden eroticism is already present in his early works; the amazing ability of the artist to pass everything through his own sensuality will intensify as he moves away from the academic manner. Already at this time erotic drawings appear, the lines in them are more nervous, interrupted, as if the artist's own excitement was immediately reflected on the paper.

    Around 1915. Pencil on paper

    Around 1907.

    Paper, graphic and colored pencil

    1906 - 1907. Paper, pencil, red pencil

    In no other area of ​​his own work does Klimt come so close to himself. In these drawings, he is without a mask, without an audience, without collectors. He draws for himself, for himself. The drawing is freed from conventions, restrictions and is subject only to the requirements that its creator puts forward. He is genuine. This pattern Klimt liberates itself from itself. Art is an act of reincarnation. His drawings are a diary of beauty, they evoke and convey that slight euphoria that he experienced from the presence of a woman or women who excited him and became voluntary and necessary partners in this creative process.

    In the created two-figure composition "" (1908), another traditional foundation of Gustav Klimt's work is destroyed: the woman becomes submissive, now the man dominates her. She yields to the seducer, renounces herself for him.

    Here all barriers are destroyed and the energy of love will not seep through your fingers. Unsatisfied sexual desires radiate through a light dress that hugs her slender figure. This was enough to mislead the censorship, which tabooed erotic trance and carnal contact. Klimt, who showed his own hypocrisy to the puritan bourgeoisie of Vienna as in a mirror, was now rewarded with their delight. In the picture, the artist depicted himself and his beloved - Emilia Flege.

    The only and lifelong friend Gustav Klimt- Emilie Flege, was a popular designer.

    She ran Vienna's first haute couture salon. Flege sisters". She used sketches by Klimt in her collections. They spent their summers together on Lake Attersee in the Alpine foothills. Klimt had no one closer, but his relationship with Emilia, as biographers are convinced, was platonic. In the portrait by Klimt, Emilia is like an outlandish tropical butterfly in the shimmer of lilac, lilac, violet.

    In the late period of creativity, after the completion of " golden age”and the beginning of the expressionist stage, Klimt turns to Japanese engraving, allegory and landscape, which allowed him to show his talent to the fullest.

    In the landscapes, the influence of the Impressionists is guessed: the unsteady contours of strokes, the light cut off from above and from the side of the image, and the flat interpretation of the surface speaks of the influence of the East characteristic of Art Nouveau. The image of nature is mosaic, many works are similar to tapestries.

    There is no horizon in them, verticals, horizontals and color spots destroy and rhythmically fill free space. And yet - there is not even a hint of the presence of people in them. In his paintings, nature is self-sufficient and indifferent to man; it both frightens and attracts Klimt. Just like women.» at the World Exhibition in Rome is awarded and highly appreciated. Klimt depicts, as in the allegory " Virgo”(1913), human bodies intertwined with each other, floating in the world space and personifying the fate of mankind.

    The picture can be interpreted as the main commandment of the Lord - not to let each other down, to stand each in his own area. All people are links of one chain, even more precisely - a network. On the orange layer, humanity looks like orange rings intertwined with each other. And when one ring broke (one of us fell, unable to resist), a gap appeared, into which dirt poured onto everyone else. Motive of death Klimt depicts in the form of color accents - black, blue, purple colors, symbols that are woven into the flow of human, the image of an aging or ugly body. Also significant is the moment of attraction of pictorial forms to their immersion in darkness (black space), which indicates the image of death through immersion in non-existence, withdrawal into the unmanifested infinite through the abandonment of consciousness. Death is understood by Klimt as a necessary element of the life of the Universe, which allows the Finite to merge into the element of the Infinite. The picture is dominated by a sense of fate, the mystery of human life, the age of life, the relationship between death and love. All this is shown through a stylized language filled with allegories and metaphors.

    Klimt gives a completely different meaning to everything that the work of early decorativeism implied. Luxury, tortuosity, continuity of lines, stylization of forms, diversity of primary colors - they turned into a bright mosaic of pictures full of intense melancholic charm, a return to the search for the lost Paradise.

    During this period, Klimt travels a lot - visits Italy, Belgium, England, Spain and other countries, discovering new names of artists - Toulouse - Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Munch, Matisse ... He writes with great joy that modern painting is full of talented personalities. Unfortunately, Klimt left no diaries, almost did not talk about his methods and his worldview. His laconic correspondence with Emily has survived, as well as the essay “

    (click to enlarge)

    Golden Adele

    Frieze of Beethoven (detail: hostile forces)

    Portrait of Sonya Knips

    Three ages of woman

    Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein

    Portrait of Johannes Staude

    Female portrait

    Country house

    flower field

    Frieze of Beethoven, Wandgem

    Athena Pallas

    Athena Pallas

    Water snakes I

    water movement

    Water snakes II

    Theater Taormina

    Garden with sunflowers in the village

    Goldfish

    Judith with the head of Holofernes

    Life and death

    Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer

    Portrait of Baroness Elisabeth Bachoffen-Ekt

    Portrait of Emilia Floge

    Portrait of Eugenia Primaversi

    Portrait of Frederica Maria

    Portrait of Maria Munch

    Goldfish

    Adam and Eve

    Expectation

    tree of life

    Sunflowers in a rustic garden

    field of poppies

    Birch Grove

    beech grove

    Peasant house with birches

    Blooming field

    Malcesine Castle on Lake Garda

    Kammer Castle on the Attersee

    Poplar Giant, or Impending Thunderstorm

    Pond in the Kammer castle park

    Church in Cassone

    Road in Kammer castle park

    Guardaboski's house

    Peasant house in Upper Austria

    Chronology of the life of Gustav Klimt

    • 1862, July 14 in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Gustav Klimt was born. He was the second of seven children of the engraver Ernst Klimt and his wife Anna née Finster.
    • 1876 ​​Gustav Klimt enters the School of Industrial Art in Vienna, where he studied until 1883 under Ferdinand Laufberger and Julius Viktor Berger.
    • 1877 Klimt's younger brother, Ernst, also becomes a student at the School of Industrial Art. They collaborate by painting portraits from photographs and selling them for 6 guilders.
    • 1879, Together with their friend Franz Match, Gustav and Ernst Klimt completed decorative work on the courtyard of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
    • 1880 Three young men receive major commissions: four allegorical paintings for the ceiling of the Sturani Palace in Vienna; ceiling of the pavilion of mineral waters in Carlsbad (Czech Republic).
    • 1885, Interior decoration, made according to the drawings of Hans Makart, Hermes Palace, the favorite country residence of Empress Elisabeth.
    • 1886, While working on the Burgtheater, Klimt's style develops in a new direction, clearly different from the style of his comrades. Klimt departs from academicism; each of the three artists works independently.
    • 1888, Klimt receives from the hands of Emperor Franz Joseph I the Golden Order of Merit, for his contribution to art.
    • 1890, Staircase painting in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt receives the Imperial Prize (400 guilders) for his painting The Hall of the Old Burgtheater in Vienna.
    • 1892, Klimt's father, as well as later the artist himself, dies of a stroke. Death of Klimt's brother, Ernst.
    • 1893, the Ministry of Culture refuses to approve the appointment of Klimt as a professor at the Academy of Arts.
    • 1894 Klimt and Match are commissioned to create paintings for the walls and ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna.
    • 1895, Klimt receives first prize in Antwerp for his set design of the theater in Totis (Hungary).
    • 1897 Official rebellion: Klimt is the founder of the "Secession" and President-elect. He spends the summer with his companion, Emilia Flöge, in the Kammer area on the Attersee lake: first landscapes.
    • 1898, Composition for the first exhibition of the "Secession"; The Secession founds the journal Ver Sacrum.
    • 1900, The painting "Philosophy", rejected at the "Secession" exhibition by 87 professors, receives a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris.
    • 1901, Secession scandal continues: Klimt's painting "Medicine" becomes the subject of discussion at the Ministry of Education.
    • 1902, Meeting with Auguste Rodin, who admired the Beethoven Frieze.
    • 1903 Trip to Venice, Ravenna and Florence. The beginning of the "golden period". The paintings painted for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna are transferred, despite Klimt's protest, to the Austrian Gallery. Retrospective of Klimt's work in the Secession Exhibition Building.
    • 1904, Klimt draws sketches for the wall mosaics of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, made at the School of Industrial Art in Vienna.
    • 1905, Klimt buys paintings from the Ministry for the University of Vienna. He and his friends leave the Secession.
    • 1907, Klimt meets the young Egon Schiele. Picasso writes The Maidens of Avignon.
    • 1908, 16 paintings are on display at the exhibition. The National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome acquires the Three Ages of a Woman, the Austrian Gallery in Vienna - "The Kiss".
    • 1909 Start of work on the Stoclet Frieze. A trip to Paris, where Klimt discovers the work of Toulouse-Lautrec and Fauvism with great interest. Van Gogh, Munch, Toorop, Gauguin, Bonnard, t Matisse are presented at the exhibition.
    • 1911 Death and Life wins first prize at the World Exhibition in Rome. Klimt visits Rome, Florence, Brussels, London and Madrid.
    • 1912, Klimt replaces the background of "Death and Life" with blue (in the manner of Matisse).
    • 1914, Criticism of Klimt's work by expressionists.
    • 1915, Death of Klimt's mother. The artist's palette becomes darker, and his landscapes become more monochrome.
    • 1916, Klimt, together with Egon Schiele, Kokoschka and Feistauer, takes part in the exhibition of the Union of Austrian Artists, organized by the "Berlin Secession". The death of Emperor Franz Joseph I, two years before the collapse of the empire and the death of Klimt himself.
    • 1917 Work begins on The Bride and Adam and Eve. Klimt was elected an honorary member of the Vienna and Munich Academies of Art.
    • 1918, February 6, after a stroke, Klimt dies, leaving many paintings unfinished. End of an empire; foundation on the territory of the former empire of the Republic of Austria and six other republics. Death of Egon Schiele, Otto Wagner, Ferdinand Hodler, Koloman Moser...

    When creating the chronology, materials from the book "Klimt" by Gilles Nere (Publishing House Tachen / Art Spring, 2000) were used

    Biography of Klimt

    Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 - February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter, one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession. Klimt is known for paintings, frescoes, sketches and other works of art. The female body was the main plot of Klimt, and frank eroticism is characteristic of his works. In addition to figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, it was Klimt who was most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

    Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. With the development of a more personal style, Klimt's work became the subject of controversy, which culminated when a painting he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna was criticized as pornographic. Subsequently, he no longer accepted public commissions, but was successful with "golden period" paintings, many of which include gold leaf. Klimt's work had a significant impact on his young contemporary Egon Schiele.

    Life and art

    Early life and education

    Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna in Austria-Hungary, the second of seven children, three boys and four girls. His mother, Anna Klimt (née Finster), had unfulfilled ambitions to become a musician. His father, Ernst Klimt Sr., once from Bohemia, was a gold engraver. From early childhood, all three sons, Gustav, Ernst and Georg, showed artistic talent.

    While visiting the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied architectural painting until 1883, Klimt lived in poverty. He deeply respected Hans Makart, the leading painter of the history of Vienna at that time. Klimt readily accepted the principles of conservative learning; his early work can be classified as academic. In 1877 his brother Ernst, who like his father had become an engraver, also entered the school. The two brothers and their friend, Franz Mac, began to work together and by 1880 received numerous commissions as a group, which was called the "Company of Artists". They also helped their teacher with painting the wall frescoes at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Klimt began his professional career by painting frescoes on the walls and ceilings of large public buildings on the Ringstraße, which included the successful Emblems and Allegories series.

    In 1888, Klimt received the Golden Order from Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria for his contribution to the painting of frescoes in the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also became an honorary member of the Munich and Vienna universities. In 1892, Klimt's father and brother, Ernst, died and he had to take financial responsibility for the family.

    The tragedy also affected his artistic vision, and he soon began to move in the direction of a new personal style. A feature of his style at the end of the 19th century included Nuda Veritas (The Naked Truth) as a symbolic figure in some of his works, such as Ancient Greece and Egypt (1891), Pallas Athena (1898) and Nuda Veritas (1899). Historians believe that Klimt, through nuda veritas, condemned the policies of the Habsburgs and Austrian society, which ignored all the political and social problems of the time. In the early 1890s, Klimt met Emilia Louise Flöge, who, despite the artist's relationship with other women, became his companion for the rest of his life. It is believed that in his painting "The Kiss" (1907-1908), they are depicted as lovers. He drew many of the clothes she designed and modeled.

    During this period, Klimt fathered at least fourteen children.

    Years of the Vienna Secession

    In 1897, Klimt became one of the founders and head of the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession) and the periodical Ver Sacrum ("Holy Spring") group. He remained with the Secession until 1908. The aims of the group were: to hold exhibitions of unconventional young artists, to bring the work of the best foreign artists to Vienna, and to publish their own magazine to present the work of the members. The group did not announce a manifesto or favor any particular style—Naturalists, Realists, and Symbolists all co-existed. The government supported their activities and leased state land to them for the construction of an exhibition hall. The symbol of the group was Pallas Athena - the Greek goddess of justice, wisdom and art, which Klimt painted, in his radical version, in 1898.

    In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to create three paintings to decorate the ceiling in the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. Not completed until the turn of the century, his three paintings Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical plots and themes, and called "pornographic". Klimt transformed traditional allegory and symbolism into a new language that was more overtly sexual and therefore more stunning to some. Public protest came from all sides - political, aesthetic and religious. As a result, the paintings were not shown on the ceiling of the Great Hall. As expected, this was the last public commission accepted by the artist.

    All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS troops in May 1945.

    His painting Nuda Veritas(1899) identified his attempt to further "shake up" the existing order. A completely naked woman with red hair holds a Mirror of Truth, and above her is a quote from Friedrich Schiller in a stylized inscription: “Your deeds and your art cannot please everyone: do what you think is right, for the good of a few. Too many people like it is bad.”

    In 1902, Klimt completed the Beethoven Frieze for the fourteenth exhibition of the Vienna Secession, which was assembled to celebrate the composer and display Max Klinger's monumental polychrome sculpture. The frieze, intended only for the exhibition, was painted directly on the walls with light materials. The painting was kept after the exhibition, but was not shown again until 1986. The face in the portrait of Beethoven resembled the composer and conductor of the Vienna State Opera, Gustav Mahler, with whom Klimt had a respectful relationship.

    During this period, Klimt did not limit himself to public commissions. Beginning in the late 1890s, he spent his annual summer holidays with the Flöge family on the banks of the Attersee and painted many of his landscapes. These landscapes represent the only genre besides figurative painting that seriously interested Klimt. In recognition of its depth, the locals called it Waldschrat ("Forest Demon").

    Klimt's Attersee paintings are of sufficient quantity and quality, which deserves special praise. Formally, the landscapes are characterized by the same sophistication of composition and emphatic drawing, as well as figured parts. The depth of space in the Attersee works is so reasonably flattened into one plane that it is assumed that Klimt painted them with a telescope.

    Golden period and critical success

    Klimt's "Golden Period" was marked by critical acclaim and financial success. Many of his paintings from this period contain gold leaf. Klimt had previously used gold in Pallas Athena (1898) and Judith I (1901), but the works most commonly associated with this period are: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss ( 1907-1908).

    Klimt traveled little, but trips to Venice and Ravenna, both famous for their beautiful mosaics, most likely inspired his gold technique and Byzantine images. In 1904, he collaborated with other artists on the opulent Palais Stoclet, home of a wealthy Belgian industrialist, which is one of the great monuments of the Art Nouveau era. Klimt's contributions to the dining room, including "Rapture" and "Waiting", were among his finest decorative works and, as he publicly stated, "...probably the final stage of my ornamental development."

    In 1905, Klimt painted a portrait of Margaret Wittgenstein, Ludwig Wittgenstein's sister, on the occasion of her marriage. Then, between 1907 and 1909, Klimt painted five paintings of secular women wrapped in furs.

    Since Klimt worked and rested in his home, he usually wore sandals and a long dressing gown with no underwear. His simple life was somewhat secluded, devoted to his art, family, and little else except for the Secession. He avoided bohemia and rarely interacted with other artists. Klimt's fame usually brought clients to his door, and he could afford to be quite selective. His method of painting was at times very deliberate and meticulous, and required his models to sit for long periods of time.

    Klimt did not write much about his vision or methods. He mostly wrote postcards for Flöge and did not keep a diary. In rare texts entitled "Commentary on a non-existent self-portrait", he wrote: "I never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as an object for painting than in other people, especially women ... There is nothing special about me. I am an artist who paints every day from morning till night... If anyone wants to know something about me... he should take a close look at my paintings.”

    In 1901, Hermann Bahr wrote in his "Speech on Klimt": "Just as soon as a lover can tell a person the meaning of life and discover his inner meaning, I feel the same in relation to these paintings."

    Last years of life and posthumous success

    In 1911, his painting "Death and Life" won first prize at the World Exhibition in Rome. In 1915 his mother, Anna, died. Klimt died three years later in Vienna on February 6, 1918, from a stroke and pneumonia due to that year's influenza epidemic. He was buried in the Hitzinger Cemetery in Vienna. Numerous of his paintings remained unfinished.

    Klimt's paintings brought with them some of the highest prices recorded for individual works of art. In November 2003, Klimt's painting Landhaus am Attersee sold for $29,128,000, but that price was soon eclipsed by another painting of his.

    In 2006 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I(1907) was bought by Ronald Lauder for New York's New Gallery for $135 million, exceeding the price of Picasso's 1905 Boy with a Trumpet (sold May 5, 2004 for $104 million), which was considered the highest price ever or paid for a painting.

    On August 7, 2006, Christie's auction house announced that they were selling the remaining four works by Klimt, which Maria Altman and her co-heirs returned after a long legal battle against Austria. "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II" was sold at auction in November 2006 for $88 million, the third highest price for a work of art at auction at that time. Painting "Apple Tree I"(c. 1912) sold for $33 million, "Beech Grove"(1903) sold for $40.3 million, and the painting "Houses in Unterach on Lake Atter" (1916) - for $31 million. Together, the five returned paintings fetched more than $327 million. In November 2011, an unremarkable Attersee painting brought $ 40.4 million at Sotheby's auction.

    In 2012, many special exhibitions were held in Vienna (Austria) dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Klimt's birth. Google also marked this anniversary with a Google doodle.

    Biography of Gustav Klimt

    Born in the Vienna suburb of Baumgarten July 14, 1862 in the family of an engraver and jeweler E. Klimt. He studied with his father, and in 1875-1883 - at the school of crafts at the Vienna Austrian Art and Industry Museum. Initially, he was greatly influenced by the art of G. Makart with his pompous neo-baroque historicism. After graduation, he worked with his brother Ernst and the artist F. Match, decorating the theaters of the Austro-Hungarian province (in Reichenberg, Fiume and Karlsbad - Karlovy Vary) with decorative painting. From 1885, they also decorated Viennese buildings (among these works, the picturesque decor of the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum stands out - vivid examples of the magnificent “Ringstrasse style”, as Viennese historicism of the turn of the century is usually called). With the death of his brother Ernst (1892), the team broke up. Increasingly involved in the elements of modernity and, accordingly, in opposition to the academic tradition, Klimt became in 1897 one of the founders of the Vienna Secession, independent of the Academy of Arts (German: Sezession - “falling away”, “separation”) and its first president. Created on his initiative, the Vienna Workshops (1903) played an important role in the stylistic renewal of Austrian design. For the exhibition building of the Secession (architects J. Hoffmann and J. Olbrich, 1897), Klimt created the Beethoven Frieze (1901–1902), embodying the themes of the Ninth Symphony. Another milestone decorative work, a cycle of allegorical panels, the so-called. "Faculty paintings" for the University of Vienna (1900-1903; preserved, in different collections, only fragments of the cycle), caused a scandal and was rejected by customers: Klimt's ladies, symbolizing Philosophy and other disciplines, seemed too cutesy and incompatible with the spirit of rigorous science. As an easel painter, Klimt went down in history, primarily for his highly expressive portraits of women ( E. Flöge, 1902, Historical Museum, Vienna; A. Bloch-Bauer, 1907, Gallery of the 19th and 20th centuries, Vienna) and symbolic paintings, saturated with dramatic, "fatal" eroticism ( Judith I, 1901, Austrian Gallery in Belvedere, Vienna; Kiss, 1907–1908, ibid.; Salome, 1909, International Museum of Modern Art, Venice; Danae, 1910, Welz Gallery, Salzburg). At first, he reinforced this “Dionysian” drama with golden backgrounds, then with large color patterns, from the shimmering elements of which, as if from the elements of the floor, shimmering figures were born. He was also a master of ornamental and colorful landscapes ( A park, 1910, Museum of Modern Art, New York). His last major monumental work was the decoration of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels (1911). After leaving the Secession in 1906, he founded the new Union of Austrian Artists, supporting innovative artists at its exhibitions, in particular O. Kokoschka and E. Schiele. Only by 1917 did he win full official recognition, becoming an honorary professor at the Vienna and Munich academies. Klimt died in Vienna on February 6, 1918.


    One of the most famous painters of the past is Gustav Klimt, whose paintings are in great demand today. Unfortunately, there are not so many of his works, and all of them have long found their place in the best collections in the world. But when a miracle happens, and his paintings are put up for auction, their cost is fabulous.

    the beginning of time

    The man whose name is familiar to every intellectual today was born near the Austrian capital, in the town of Baumgarten. Gustav, who was born on July 14, 1862, was the second child. His father was an engraver and jeweler, so he gave all his many children the first lessons in craftsmanship. The family lived in poverty, but at the age of fourteen the young talent enters the arts and crafts school. There, Gustav Klimt, whose paintings amaze everyone without exception, studied with such luminaries as Ferdinand Laufberger and Julius Victor Berger. A few years later, the artist's younger brother, Ernst, entered the same institution. Together they painted portraits of noble citizens from photographs and sold for six guilders. This was their first independent earnings.

    First steps in art

    In 1879, the artist Gustav Klimt, his brother and Franz von Mach decorate the courtyard of the Vienna Museum of Art History, after which they receive their first serious commission. From the palace of Stureny ("Four Allegories") and the baths in Karlsbad, a special style emerges that will distinguish the paintings of Gustav Klimt from the works of other painters. Therefore, the trio of artists stop working together, and they each go on their own voyage through life.

    Finding Your Own Style

    The artist Klimt almost immediately received recognition from the demanding public. From the hands of Emperor Franz Joseph, he receives the Golden Cross for services in art after the completion of work in the Burgtheater. Therefore, the master is sent on a journey through the Old World, during which he visits Munich and Venice. This trip gave him a lot of impressions and inspiration for further work.

    Having finished painting the main staircase of the Moscow Museum of the History of Art, Gustav departs from the academic manner of drawing. His special manner of performance has already acquired its finished form. In subsequent years, the artist Gustav Klimt, whose paintings every collector dreams of owning, becomes a member of the Union of Fine Arts. But in 1892, heavy losses await him: first his father dies, and then his brother Ernst. In 1894, Klimt, together with his longtime partner Franz Match, decorated the University of Vienna, before Gustav worked on the halls of the Hungarian Esterhazy castle.

    Recognition in life

    Work on the interiors of the premises, in particular the execution of allegorical images, three faculties "Philosophy", "Jurisprudence" and "Medicine" prompted the artist to draw canvases. He founds the "Secession" in Vienna and becomes its president, writes his first landscapes, is fond of expressionism. The paintings of Gustav Klimt of that period are distinguished by their love for mosaics and ornamental forms. This is a distinctive feature of the master's work in the future.

    Gustav Klimt, whose paintings were awarded a gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris (painting "Philosophy"), creates Beethoven frescoes. This work of his, completed in 1902, was actively discussed by the public, and Rodin admired it. The master goes on a trip to Italy, becomes in demand, they listen to him. In 1908, the artist organized his own exhibition, where he presented sixteen paintings. Two of them were immediately acquired by reputable institutions - the Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and the Austrian State Gallery.

    In Paris, which Klimt visited in 1909, he got acquainted with the work of Toulouse Lautrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Munch, Bonnart. A year later, he takes part in the ninth painting "Death and Life", which was highly appreciated at the 1911 World Exhibition in Rome. After her, the artist again goes on a trip to Europe.

    The last years of the life of the great painter

    Despite the love of the public, the work of Gustav Klimt was criticized by the expressionists. After the death of his mother in 1915, the artist increasingly chose dark palette colors. He continues to take part in the most prestigious exhibitions in the world, becomes an honorary member of the Academy of Arts in Munich and Vienna, writes masterpiece paintings. The artist dies from a heart attack on February 6, 1918, leaving a large number of unfinished works. After him, other great painters of that time also die.

    "Kiss" by Gustav Klimt - the most famous painting of the artist

    This work is rightfully considered one of the best among the master's legacy. It was created in 1907 and immediately after the presentation was bought by the government of Austria-Hungary. The emotional, dazzlingly bright "Kiss" by Gustav Klimt is recognized as the most expressive image in the history of twentieth-century painting. What is special about her?

    On the canvas there are various types of patterns: scatterings of variegated flowers, running curls, a checkerboard motif of black, white and green rectangles, ribbon arabesques, twisting spirals. Abstraction of fragments of naturalistically interpreted figures, bizarre ornaments looks simply luxurious on a golden background. The couple, which is depicted in the center, embraced and merged in a passionate kiss. Mosaic clothes of lovers only enhance the effect of passion created by the master with the help of decorative details and their deep contrast with naturalistic elements. The girl's face, arms and legs are very realistically painted. But parts of the body are surrounded, and in some places completely covered, by planes with an abstract motif that matches the colors on the ground and the texture of the fabric.

    The painting has the artist's favorite format - square. Gustav ignores the horizon and the depth of space, pushes reality and current time into the background. Thus, the kiss of a young man and a girl in love acquires a universal scale.

    Symbolism of the Kiss

    Gustav Klimt, whose paintings always have a semantic meaning, also used symbolism in The Kiss. So, at first glance, the rectangles depicted on the clothes of a man have only a decorative value. But these are phallic symbols that personify the masculine principle. They merge with the feminine, encrypted in the motif on the woman's attire. These are spirals, circles and ovals, which can be considered artistic signs of the female genitalia. This union is harmonious and energetic, generates life and continues it.

    The canvas "Kiss" is absolutely unusual and outrageous. Like all previous works, it had its fans and fierce opponents. But still, it is it that marks the highest point of the so-called golden period of the artist's work. The picture became the emblem of the Vienna Secession, bewitching with a golden glow, dimmed eroticism (after all, only the hands, feet and faces of the characters appeared open to the eye), obvious chastity.

    Cherchez la femme, or Look for a woman

    Gustav Klimt's favorite motif was women and their bodies. He liked to paint scenes from mythology, biblical characters, Olympian goddesses, nymphs and ordinary girls who became unearthly. Surrounded by golden light (many works of the genius had just such a chic background), they seemed to be the ideal of beauty, beautiful and seductive at the same time. As a true artist, he idolized the fair sex, its divine awe, sensuality, mysticism and femininity.

    On his canvases, he painted naked women and only then dressed up their bodies in fabulous precious clothes. The mysterious shimmer of precious stones, flowing hair, the glow of silky skin and the thinnest gossamer dress created temptation, covering a half-naked body.

    Fatal ladies of genius

    The artist of the turn of the century absorbed all the conflicting opinions of that era. He was looking for an ideal and contemporary woman and depicted in his paintings. He painted not only real people, such as, for example, was Sonya Knips, whose portrait simultaneously expresses lightness, innocence, anxiety and thoughtfulness. Each lady depicted by Gustav is fatal. In the painting “Love”, the heroine’s face froze in sweet ecstasy, but shadows thicken in the background. After all, old age and death await the young man and girl. A striking example of such beauties are the following paintings: "Mermaid", "Goldfish", both versions of "Judith", "Water snakes". The work “Three Ages of a Woman”, which depicts a little girl, a woman in the prime of life and beauty, as well as an old woman, is also filled with deep philosophy.

    It is interesting that the master was not married, although he had numerous novels. Perhaps he never found his ideal ...

    This article is dedicated to today's event. Gustav Klimt would have turned 150 on July 14, 2012. Gustav Klimt is an Austrian artist, born July 14, 1862. Many call him the founder of Austrian modernism. The artist painted mostly women, naked women. In his paintings, there was often frank eroticism.

    Klimt's father was also an artist and also a gold engraver. Mother all her life dreamed of becoming a musician, but she never did it. The Klimt family had 8 children, Gustav was born the second.

    The child's childhood passed in poverty, despite the good profession of his father. There was no permanent job in the country, so I had to endure financial difficulties. Gustav learned to draw from his father, but already in 1876 he entered the arts and crafts school, where his brother also entered in 1877. All three sons of Ernest Klimt became artists in the future.

    The brothers worked together for a long time, decorating theaters, various buildings, and museums with frescoes. In 1888, Gustav received a well-deserved award - " Golden cross from Emperor Franz Joseph himself. Everything went well, and things went uphill, but in 1892 Gustav Klimt's father and brother died, and therefore the entire responsibility for providing for the family fell on the artist's shoulders.

    Gustav Klimt He wrote a lot, especially when he and his family went to Lake Attersee, and this was quite often. It was here that he completed his beautiful landscapes. This is the only genre that interested the artist, where people did not appear. But despite this, many scientists find human figures in Klimt's landscapes, and there is some truth in this.

    In 1894, Klimt received one of the major commissions. It was necessary to paint 3 paintings that would decorate the ceiling of the University of Vienna. So, in 1900, "Philosophy", "Medicine" and "Jurisprudence" were born. But society did not accept these paintings, considering them too frank, and therefore they were not exhibited at the university. This was Klimt's last public commission.

    From the beginning of the 1900s, the so-called " Golden period» artist's work. It was at this time that such paintings as "The Palace of Athena", "Judith" and others were created. At this time, society adequately perceived the works of Klimt, but not only for this reason this period was called golden. In the paintings of the artist, the color of gold, gilding very often prevailed, which was very liked by the fans of his work.

    Gustav Klimt led a normal life, worked hard, and at home. He was a famous artist, so orders came to him regularly, and he only took on interesting ones. Women posed for him with great pleasure, some of them were prostitutes. Klimt said that he was not interested in drawing self-portraits, it was much more exciting to draw other personalities, and even more so women. Gustav claimed that his paintings can tell a lot about him, just look at them carefully.

    February 6, 1918 biography of Gustav Klimt ends. He died of pneumonia after suffering a stroke. He was buried in Vienna. Today is the 150th anniversary of the birth of this remarkable artist and this date should not go unnoticed. Well, as we promised at the end of this article, you can watch a video dedicated to the paintings of Gustav Klimt.

    Biography
    Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) - artist, founder of Art Nouveau in Austrian painting. One of the most refined artists of the Art Nouveau era. At the beginning of the 20th century, his frankly erotic paintings shocked the refined Viennese public. Some considered Klimt a genius, others - "a perverted decadent."

    He was born in the Vienna suburb of Baumgarten on July 14, 1862 in the family of the engraver and jeweler Ernest Klimt. He studied with his father, and in 1875-1883 - at the school of crafts at the Vienna Austrian Art and Industry Museum, where his younger brother Ernest also entered in 1877.

    1879-1885 - Gustav with his brother and young artist Franz Match works, decorating the theaters of the Austro-Hungarian province (in Reichenberg, Fiume and Karlsbad - Karlovy Vary) and the ceilings of Viennese palaces with decorative painting, and already in 1880 - receives the first serious order - "Four allegory."

    1885-1886 - they decorate the Vienna buildings of the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum.
    During this period of joint work, Klimt's style begins to differ from that of his brother and Mutsch and moves away from the academic manner of drawing.

    Upon completion of work at the Burgtheater, Emperor Franz Joseph awards Klimt the Golden Cross for services to art.

    1886 - Klimt performs wall panels for the assembly hall of the University of Vienna with an allegorical image of the three faculties "Jurisprudence", "Philosophy" and "Medicine". The canvases will be rejected due to "provocative eroticism": the Klimtian ladies, symbolizing Philosophy and other disciplines, seemed to the customer too cutesy and incompatible with the spirit of rigorous science.

    1891 - Klimt becomes a member of the Union of Fine Arts.

    1894 - Klimt, together with Franz Match, receives an order for the decoration of "Aula Magna" at the University of Vienna.

    More and more involved in the elements of modernity and, accordingly, in opposition to the academic tradition, Klimt became in 1897 one of the founders of the Vienna Secession, independent of the Academy of Arts (German: Sezession - “falling away”, “separation”). He forever breaks with official creative circles and immediately leads a new community of innovative painters. In the same year, in the summer, in the town of Kammer on the Attersee, he painted his first landscapes.

    1898 - The Sacrum newspaper is founded - the public organ of the Secession, the first exhibitions of its members are held. During these years, Klimt developed as an expressionist, his works are distinguished by the ornamental depiction of forms that are filled with mosaics.

    1901-1902 - for the exhibition building of the Secession, Klimt creates the "Beethoven Frieze", embodying the themes of the Ninth Symphony.

    1903 - Klimt travels around Italy (Ravenna, Venice, Florence). Luxurious Byzantine mosaics seen here stagger the imagination of the master. Since then, the ability to convey real objects through the play of decorative ornaments has become his hallmark. His "golden period" begins. On his initiative, the "Viennese Workshops" were created, which played an important role in the stylistic renewal of Austrian design. In the same year, a retrospective of works by Gustav Klimt is held at the Secession.

    1904 - Klimt writes sketches for the wall mosaics of the Stoclet Palace in Brussels, which were made in the artist's Viennese studio.

    1905 - Aula Magna slabs, created at the University of Vienna, are purchased from the Austrian Gallery.

    After leaving the Secession in 1906, he founded the new Union of Austrian Artists, supporting the still little-known O. Kokoschka and E. Schiele at its exhibitions.
    1909-1911 - works on frescoes in the Stoclet Palace.

    1917 - Begins work on The Bride and Adam and Eve. Only at this time did he win full official recognition, becoming an honorary professor at the Vienna and Munich academies.
    February 6, 1918 Klimt dies in Vienna from a stroke, leaving a huge amount of unfinished work.

    Klimt went down in history, first of all, with his sharply expressive female portraits (E. Flöge, 1902, A. Bloch-Bauer, 1907) and symbolic paintings, saturated with dramatic, “fatal” eroticism (“Judith 1”, 1901; “Kiss”, 1907-1908, Salome, 1901; Danae, 1907). He enhanced this “Dionysian” drama with golden backgrounds, then with large color patterns, from the shimmering elements of which, as if from the floor, shimmering figures were born.

    Gustav Klimt. Symbolism of the "Secession" and femme fatales

    Athena Pallas. 1898

    Here Klimt first used gold. Sensual ornamentation emphasizes the important erotic component of his ideas about the world.

    “We want to declare war on sterile routine, immobile Byzantinism, all kinds of bad taste... Our Secession is not a struggle between contemporary artists and old masters, but a struggle for the success of artists, not shopkeepers who call themselves artists, but at the same time, their commercial interests interfere with the flourishing of art. This declaration by Hermann Bahr, playwright and theater critic, the spiritual father of the secessionists, can serve as a motto for the foundation in 1897 of the "Vienna Secession", one of the founders, president (until 1905) and spiritual leader of which was Klimt.

    Artists of the younger generation no longer wanted to accept the tutelage that academism imposed on them; they demanded that their work be exhibited in a proper place, free from "market forces". They wanted to end the cultural isolation of Vienna, invite artists from abroad to the city and make the work of the Secession members known in other countries. The program of the secessionists was significant not only in the "aesthetic" context, but also as a battle for the "right to create", for art as such; it was the basis for the battle between "great art" and "secondary genres", between "art for the rich" and "art for the poor" - in short, between "Venus" and "Nini".

    The "Viennese Secession" played an important role in the development and dissemination of the Art Nouveau style as a force opposing official academism and bourgeois conservatism. This revolt of youth in search of liberation from the restrictions imposed on art by social, political and aesthetic conservatism, could develop through unprecedented success and culminate in a utopian project: the idea of ​​transforming society through art.

    The Vienna Secession art association began to publish its own magazine, Ver Sacrum (Holy Spring), with which Klimt collaborated regularly for two years. After the success of the movement and successful exhibitions in other countries, the project to build an exhibition building for the Secession became a reality. Klimt submitted his Greco-Roman blueprints for the project, but preference was given to (and ultimately implemented) the "palace of arts" design designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich. His concept was to mix geometric shapes - from a cube to a sphere. On the pediment was placed the famous saying of the art critic Ludwig Hevesy: “Time is your art. Art is your freedom."

    The opening in March 1898 of the exhibition building of the Vienna Secession was eagerly awaited. Here Klimt presented the composition "Theseus and My Notaur", filled with rich symbolic meaning. The fig leaf was deliberately absent, and the artist was forced to calm the bashfulness of the censors by depicting a tree. Theseus, almost completely naked, symbolized the struggle for the new in art; he is on the illuminated side, while the Minotaur, pierced by the sword of Theseus and timidly retreating into the shadows, personifies the broken power. Athena, emerging from the head of Zeus, watches over the scene as the embodiment of a spirit born of reason, symbolizing divine wisdom.

    Schubert at the piano. 1899

    In Vienna, the "peaceful" works of Klimt were admired, and he pleased the public by portraying the beloved composer of the sentimental bourgeoisie.


    There is no art without patronage, and patrons for the "Secession" were found primarily among the Jewish families of the Viennese bourgeoisie: Karl Wittgenstein, a steel magnate, Fritz Werndorfer, a textile magnate, as well as the Knips and Lederer families, who supported precisely Art Nouveau. All of them were among those who commissioned paintings by Klimt, and he specialized in portraits of their wives.

    Portrait of Sonya Knips. 1898

    The portrait of a young lady from society expresses the indifference and aloofness characteristic of all fatal women since that time.

    The portrait of Sonya Knips was the first in this "gallery of wives". The Knips family was associated with the iron and steel industry and banking. Josef Hofmann designed their house, and Klimt painted a number of paintings, including in 1898 a portrait of Sonia in the center of the living room. The portrait combines several styles. It is well known that Klimt bowed to Makart's hyperbole, and the pose of Sonia Knips indicates the influence of the creator of the portrait of the famous Burgtheater actress Charlotte Voltaire as Messalina, which manifests itself, for example, in the asymmetric position of the figure and in the accentuation of the silhouette. On the other hand, the interpretation of the dress, which is completely uncharacteristic for Klimt, is reminiscent of Whistler's light crate. The proud, reserved expression that Klimt gave to this society lady is typical of the artist; since then, it has reappeared again and again in his fatal women.

    Nuda Veritas (The Naked Truth). 1899

    This true woman, two meters tall, expressive and provocative in her nakedness, embarrassed and teased the Viennese public. Only her pubic hair was enough to declare war on the classic ideal of beauty.

    One of the most popular ideas of the fin de siecle (end of the century) was the dominance of women over men. The theme of "struggle of the sexes" swept the salons; artists and intellectuals also took part in the discussion. Pallas Athena, painted by Klimt in 1898, was the first image in his gallery of "superwomen": with her armor and weapons, Athena is sure of victory, she subdues the man, and possibly the entire male sex. Some of the elements that appear in this picture will be fundamental in Klimt's further work: for example, the use of gold and the transformation of the body into an ornament, and the ornament into a body. Klimt continued to work with the external form, in contrast to the younger generation of Expressionists, who were looking for immediate penetration into the soul. Klimt's visual language took both male and female symbols from the world of Freudian dreams. Sensual, eroticized ornament reflects one of the sides of Klimt's ideas about the world.

    The eroticism of Klimt's work constantly provoked controversy, as in the case of three sketches for decorative panels for the Great Hall of the University, which were perceived as scandalous. In 1899 Klimt presented the final version of Philosophy, the first of these three paintings. The original version by that time had already been shown at the World Exhibition in Paris. Although she was well received by many critics and even won a prize at an exhibition, the educated public in Vienna made her the object of such a scandal, as if all Viennese culture had been trampled into the mud. Yet, apparently, Klimt wrote it only with the best of intentions.

    Philosophy. 1899-1907

    Men and women swim as if in a trance, not controlling the chosen direction. This was contrary to the ideas of science and knowledge prevailing among the scientists of that time, who felt mortally insulted. The work was commissioned by the University of Vienna.

    “Although you cannot please all people with your actions and your art, you wish to please not many. It's not good to please the crowd." Judging by the outrage provoked by Klimt's Medicinal, he seems to have made Schiller's principle his own.

    He perceived "Philosophy" as a synthesis of his ideas about the world, and at the same time as a search for his own style. In the catalogue, he explained: “On the left is a group of figures: Beginning of life, Maturity and Withering. On the right is a ball representing a mystery. An illuminated figure appears below: Knowledge.

    However, the venerable Viennese professors rebelled against what they saw as an attack on tradition. They offered the artist to paint a picture that could express the triumph of light over darkness. Instead, Klimt presented them with an image of "the victory of darkness over everything." Influenced by the works of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche and trying to find his own way of unraveling the metaphysical riddle of human existence, the artist turned their idea around to express the confusion of modern man. He did not hesitate to break the taboo on such topics as illness, physical decline, poverty - in all their ugliness; before that, reality was usually sublimated, presenting its most beneficial aspects.


    Flow. 1898

    Water women of Klimt with sensual expression yield to the embrace of the waves, their natural element.

    Life and the erotic idea of ​​it have always been concentrated around the struggle between Eros and Thanatos, and these ideas completely captured Klimt. The allegory "Medicine", the second in a cycle of compositions for the University, again caused a scandal. The bodies, torn out by fate, are carried forward by the stream of life, in which, reconciled, all its stages, from birth to death, experience delight or pain. Such a vision borders on belittling the role of medicine; it emphasizes her powerlessness in comparison with the inescapable forces of Rock. Isn't Hygieia, the goddess of health, standing with her back to the human race with priestly indifference, more of a mysterious or charming femme fatale than a symbol of learned enlightenment? Isn't the captivating female bodies mixed with skeletons a direct illustration of Nietzsche's parable of the "eternal return", where death is seen as the highest point of life? In Philosophy and Medicine, Klimt expresses the Schopenhauerian point of view that "the world as desire, as a blind force in the eternal cycle, is born, loves and dies."

    Medicine. 1900-1907

    Klimt was condemned for portraying the helplessness of medicine and the power of disease. The public was deeply outraged, shocked, and the artist was accused of "pornography" and "excessive perversion."

    The third work for the University, "Jurisprudence", was received with the same hostility; viewers were shocked at the ugliness and nudity they believed they saw. Only one Franz von Wickhoff, professor of art history at the University of Vienna, defended Klimt in a legendary lecture entitled "What's ugly?". However, the scandal provoked by Klimt was discussed even in Parliament. The artist was accused of "pornography" and "excessive perversion".

    Jurisprudence. 1903-1907

    Instead of depicting the victory of light over darkness, as expected, Klimt reflected the human sense of insecurity in the world around him.

    It seems that Klimt interprets sexuality in terms inspired by Freud's research into the psychology of the unconscious. Risky attempts of the artist - oh shame! — were aimed at presenting sexuality as a liberating force in contrast to scientific knowledge and its limited determinism. Klimt was expected to glorify science, but instead he was carried away by a quote from Virgil's Aeneid, which Freud paraphrased in his Interpretation of Dreams: "If I cannot control the gods, I will invoke hell."

    Klimt did not allow himself to be intimidated by harsh criticism and continued to go his own way. His only response to the militant opposition was the painting, which was first called My Critics, and after the exhibition - Goldfish. Public anger has reached its climax: the beautiful, naughty nymph in the foreground has put her butt on display for all to see! Marine figures lure the viewer into the world of sexual fantasies and associations, comparable to the world of Freud's symbols. This world has already been glimpsed in the Current and the Nymphs (Silverfish) and will be rediscovered a few years later in the pictures Water Serpents I and Water Serpents II. Art Nouveau liked to depict the underwater kingdom, where dark and light algae grow on venus mollusks or a delicate tropical coral body shimmers in the center of a bivalve shell. The meaning of the symbols brings us back to their undoubted prototype, the woman. In these underwater dreams, algae become hair growing on the head and pubis. They follow the flow in an undulating movement, so characteristic of the Modern. With languid resistance, they yield to the embrace of the sea element, just as Danae is open to Zeus, penetrating into her in the form of golden rain.

    Nymphs (Silver fish). OK. 1899

    These maritime images pave the way through the labyrinth of sexual allusions recognizable in Freud's world of symbols.

    Judith I. 1901

    The association with sexuality and mortality, Eros and Thanatos attracted at that time not only Klimt and Freud, but the whole of Europe; the quivering audience listened to the presentation of the bloody passion of Clytemnestra in the opera by Richard Strauss.


    Portraits of ladies from society gave Klimt material independence. Thus, he was not obliged to cater to public tastes or to see how his carefully thought out and brilliantly executed works were trampled into the dirt. He believed that his paintings could be redeemed for the same amount for which they were purchased. He explained to the Viennese journalist Bertha Zuckerkandl: “The main reasons why I decided to ask for the paintings back to me ... are not caused by irritation at various attacks ... they could arise in myself. All the attacks of criticism hardly touched me at that time, and besides, it was impossible to take away the happiness that I experienced while working on these works. In general, I am very insensitive to attacks. But I become much more sensitive if I understand that someone who commissioned my work is unhappy with it. As in the case when paintings are covered up. In the end, the government agreed to have the industrialist August Lederer buy Philosophy for a fraction of the original price. In 1907, Koloman Moser acquired Medicine and Jurisprudence. In an attempt to save the paintings during World War II, they were moved to Immendorf Castle in southern Austria; On May 5, 1945, the castle and everything that was stored in it were destroyed in a fire during the retreat of the SS troops. Today, some idea of ​​​​the work that once caused such public outrage can be obtained from black-and-white photographs and good a colored copy of the Goddess Hygieia, the central figure of Medicine. There is also a “colourful” comment by Ludwig Hevesy: “Let the eye pass to the two side pictures, Philosophy and Medicine: a magical symphony in green, an inspiring overture in red, a purely decorative piece in red juice on both. Jurisprudence is dominated by black and gold, unreal colors; and at the same time the line acquires meaning, and the form becomes monumental.

    Klimt's work arose in the struggle between Eros and Thanatos, denying the basic laws of bourgeois society. In Philosophy, he depicted the triumph of darkness over light, contrary to conventional wisdom. In Medicine exposed her inability to cure the disease. Finally, in Jurisprudence, he painted a condemned man in the power of the three Furies: Truth, Justice and Law. They appear as Erinyes surrounded by snakes; as a punishment, the octopus squeezes the condemned man in his deadly embrace. With his images of sexual archetypes, Klimt wanted to shock a stiff society and “bring down the pillars” of morality.

    Nothing has survived from this specially conceived group, except for some material evidence: photographs and copies from fragments of disappeared masterpieces. And also the bitter realization of the impotence of the artist, ridiculed by censorship. Klimt was never a professor at the Academy; but in front of those who mocked him, he held a mirror of "naked truth" - Nuda Veritas.

    Judith II (Salome). 1909

    Judith or Salome? Klimt clearly painted the “deadly orgasm” of a femme fatale rather than a portrait of a virtuous Jewish widow

    “Time is your art. Art is your freedom,” Hevesy wrote on the pediment of the Vienna Secession exhibition building. Klimt wanted to be completely free, wanted to think and write independently of official orders, and in this he received support from several loyal patrons. Before the scandal with the University of Vienna, he met Nikolaus Dumba, the son of a Greek businessman from Macedonia, who was connected with the East and excelled in banking and the textile industry. The interior decoration of Dumba's office was done by Hans Makart; after Makart's death, Klimt became his favorite artist. It was to him that Dumba confided when he furnished and decorated the music salon in his palace. Klimt completed two paintings above the portal: the first depicted Schubert at the piano, while the second, Music II, depicts a Greek priestess with an Apollo cithara. The first is marked by nostalgia for a lost paradise, which is among a carefree company enjoying home music. The second is written in a completely different style and points to the Dionysian world of musical symbols. “In these two paintings,” wrote Carl E. Schorske, “bourgeois serenity and Dionysian excitement clash in the same room. The picture with Schubert shows the composer at home, surrounded by music, which is the highest aesthetic point of security and a correct way of life. The stage is illuminated by the warm light of the candelabra, which softens the outlines of the figures so that they dissolve into festive harmony... Klimt uses the technique of the Impressionists to place his historical reconstruction in an atmosphere of nostalgic remembrance. He presents us with a sweet dream, bright but incorporeal - a dream of innocent, pleasurable art in the service of a carefree society."

    Portrait of Geta Felshvani. 1902

    This was the Klimt whom Vienna loved, the Klimt who captivated even the most conservative public, rewarding them with more than applause. He gave the public more than they expected - the composer Schubert, the sacred object of her sentimental reverence. Klimt retained this attractive style for patrons from high Viennese society. Obviously, this manifested itself both in his Portrait of Sonya Knips, and in the tenderness of subsequent portraits of "wives": Gerta Felyivani, Serena Lederer and Emilia Flöge. However, the women in these portraits always have the same serene, dreamy expression on their faces: they look at the world and at the man melancholy and aloof. Klimt's "fear of free space" manifested itself here simultaneously with the majestic poses of the heroines. His eclecticism allowed him to create in the style of either Diego Velasquez or Fernand Knopf. From one he took the manner of writing the outlines of chins and magnificent hairstyles; from the other - the main characteristics of femme fatales. There is always something overwhelming in the seeming passivity of his models.

    Portrait of Serena Lederer. 1899

    Klimt knew how to please the prosperous Jewish citizens of Vienna who supported the Secession. He painted portraits of their wives, giving them boundless charm and a touch of arrogance.

    Portrait of Emilie Flöge. 1902

    Emilia Flöge was Klimt's great love and his companion until the end of her days. She ran a fashion house, and he designed fabrics and dresses for her. His patterns look as if they were carved from the ornaments of his paintings.


    Nevertheless, Klimt not only followed the requirements of the customer, it seemed that he got rid of all restrictions and painted the way he wanted. A completely different type of woman arose in the paintings, dangerous and possessed by instincts, as in Pallas Athena and Nuda Veritas (Naked Truth). Appearing for the first time in a drawing for the magazine "Ver Sacrum", this character became known as the "demon of the Secession". The second version of the image - an oil painting (2.6 meters high) - expresses the breakthrough of Klimt's new, "naturalistic" style. The public was shocked and embarrassed by the provocatively nude red-haired woman: it was not Venus, but rather a life-sized cocotta Nini, a creature of flesh and blood, cutting ties with the traditional idealization of the nude woman in art. Schiller's quote serves as a comment that reinforces the provocativeness and ensures the subsequent rejection of the public: “Although you cannot please all people with your actions and your art, you want to please a few. It's not good to please the crowd." This first version, published in Ver Sacrum, was also accompanied by a quote from L. Schaeffer: "True art is created by a few and appreciated by a few."

    Judith I and, eight years later, Judith II are the next incarnations of Klimt's femme fatale archetype. His Judith is not a biblical heroine, but rather a Viennese contemporary of his, as evidenced by her fashionable, perhaps expensive neckpiece. According to the publications of Berta Zuckerkandl, Klimt created the vamp type long before Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich, who personified him, appeared on the silver screen. Proud and free, but at the same time mysterious and charming, the femme fatale values ​​herself higher than the male spectator.

    Beech forest. OK. 1902

    Klimt brought to his landscapes the same sensuality that can be found in his portraits. Here he turns to the intricate tapestry effect.The trees depicted by Van Gogh sound like fanfares in modern painting, while the sensual awe of women is felt in the trees of Klimt.

    Pictures cannot be considered separately from luxurious frames. The first version of the frame was made by the artist's brother, jeweler Georg Klimt, by accident. The ornament in the picture was also transferred to the frame in a very popular manner then, proposed by the Pre-Raphaelites. The paintings were created under the influence of Byzantine art, which Klimt studied during a trip to Ravenna. The intended contrast between the three-dimensional plasticity of a finely drawn and softly painted face and the two-dimensional surface of the ornament is a distinctive feature of these paintings. The "photomontage effect" enhances their charm.

    Without a doubt, Klimt found in Judith a generalizing symbol of the justice that a woman does over a man who atones for his guilt by death. To save her people, Judith seduced the enemy commander Holofern and cut off his head. The Old Testament heroine — a fine example of courage and determination, serving as an ideal — becomes Klimt’s “castering” woman… In this biblical figure, Eros and Death are united in a familiar union, which the fin de siecle (the end of the century) found so intriguing . Another example of a "castrating" woman, shamelessly embodying the most vicious fantasies, was the bloodthirsty Clytemnestra, the heroine of Richard Strauss's opera Elektra.

    Judith Klimt was supposed to irritate that part of Viennese society (otherwise ready to accept his violations of taboos), which was called the Jewish bourgeoisie. Klimt violated religious prohibitions, and the audience could not believe their eyes. Commentators have speculated that Klimt must have been mistaken in asserting that this frantic, virtually orgasmic woman, with her half-closed eyes and slightly parted lips, was a pious Jewish widow and a bold heroine. Without the slightest pleasure, the biblical Judith fulfilled the terrible mission entrusted to her by heaven, and cut off the head of Holofernes, the leader of the Assyrian army. The people were sure that Klimt must have been referring to Salome, the quintessential fin de femme fatale who had already captivated so many artists and thinkers, from Gustave Moreau to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley, Franz von Stuck and Max Klinger. And the picture "Judith" from the best of intentions was constantly called "Salome" in catalogs and magazines. It remains unknown whether Klimt attributed the features of Salome to his Judith; but whatever his intentions, the result was the most eloquent depiction of Eros and the fantasies of the artist's contemporary femme fatale.

    Goldfish. 1901 - 1902

    This painting is Klimt's response to sharp criticism of his faculty paintings. Entitled at first "Mem to the critics," the picture shows in the foreground an amazing, nimble naiad, who frankly put her beautiful ass on display.


    But Klimt was not only a connoisseur of femme fatales. While his writings for the Great Hall of the University were still causing wide resonance, he began to "cultivate his garden" like Candide. Klimt turned to landscape painting, taking the landscapes of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists as a starting point. One can find sufficient reason to believe that Monet served as a model for some of Klimt's early landscapes, such as the Swamp (1900) or the Tall Poplars II (1903). However, as a landscape painter, Klimt offers a stable synthesis of Impressionism and Symbolism. The outlines of the strokes are destroyed (this is reminiscent of the Impressionists), but the schematic interpretation of the surface often indicates the influence of the East typical of Art Nouveau. Unlike the Impressionists, Klimt is not fond of the image of water, as well as the play of chiaroscuro. As in his portraits, in landscapes he seems to make mosaics, combining naturalism with schematism. This becomes apparent when comparing such paintings as After the Rain, Nymphs or the Portrait of Emilia Flöge with the Beech Forest. In landscapes, as well as in portraits and allegories, figures and forms appear as if against a background of planar ornamentation.

    Forest scenes such as the Beech Forest are like tapestries in which Klimt brings a sense of rhythm, creating a repeating pattern by grouping vertical and horizontal lines. Van Gogh fought desperately for the victory of modern painting, while Klimt was more of a silent reaper whose sensuous gleam of landscapes is enhanced by ornamental and symbolic meaning. A variety of mosaic pieces that filled the horizon and destroyed free space helped him get rid of the "fear of free space."

    The fact that there is not even a hint of the presence of people in his landscapes helps us understand that Klimt really perceived landscapes as living beings. The artist's attitude to landscapes is as peculiar as to women - the main characters of his work. Doesn't the dress worn by Emilia Flöge in her first portrait (1902) look like the fabric was cut from a forest landscape to fit the woman's body like a second skin? Klimt chose this dress to emphasize all the advantages of a slender silhouette; it is a little strange that this caused a new scandal in Vienna. Even the artist's mother expressed her dissatisfaction with the new-fangled dress, which, with ruffles and frills not yet accepted at that time, went, in her opinion, far beyond the bounds of decency.

    In Klimt's portraits, dresses play no less a role than the models themselves. They skillfully serve to reveal the individuality of a woman, enhancing the perception of the face, neck and hands. As a classic example, Ingres can be cited, whose portraits are also full of sensual beauty. For both artists, clothing performed the same necessary function as the body. Gaetan Pico's statement about Ingres can equally be applied to Klimt: “There is nothing more skillful, more refined in the work of Ingres than the harmony of neck and necklace, velvet and flesh, cape and hairstyle; or the borders of contact between the chest and a deeply low-cut dress, a hand and a long glove. If in these portraits the women are dressed in any particular dress, it is because the light of desire emanates from them; they come towards us in veiled nakedness…”

    Gilles Nere. Tachen / Art spring, 2000

    Other jobs

    01 - Golden Adele. 1907

    02 - Frieze of Beethoven (detail: hostile forces). 1902

    03 - Idyll. 1884

    04 - Fable. 1898

    05 - Kiss. 1907-1908

    06 - Danae. 1907-1908

    07 - Frieze of Beethoven, Wandgem. 1902

    08 - Three ages of women. 1905

    09 - Water kites 1. 1904-1907

    10 - Girlfriends. 1916-1917

    11 - Water snakes 2. 1904-1907

    12 - Virgins. 1913

    13 - Life and Death. 1908-1911

    14 - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer. 1912

    15 - Portrait of Baroness Elisabeth Bachoffen-Ekt. 1914-1916

    16 - Portrait of Eugenia Primaversi. 1912

    17 - Portrait of Frederica Maria. 1916

    18 - Portrait of Maria Munch. 1917-1918

    19 - Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein. 1905

    20 - Portrait of Johann Staude. 1917-1918

    21 - Adam and Eve. 1898

    22 - Hope. 1903

    23 - Waiting. 1905-1909

    24 - Embrace. 1905-1909

    25 - Tree of life. 1905-1909

    27 - Sunflowers in a village garden. 1905-1906

    28 - Field of poppies. 1907

    29 - Birch Grove. 1903

    Landscape scenes such as "Field of Poppies", "Sunflowers", "Beech Forest" or "Birch Grove" are like tapestries in which Klimt brings a sense of rhythm, creating a repeating pattern, grouping vertical and horizontal lines and color spots. A variety of mosaic pieces that filled the horizon and destroyed free space helped him get rid of the "fear of free space." The fact that there is not even a hint of the presence of people in his landscapes helps us understand that Klimt really perceived landscapes as living beings.

    30 - Peasant house with birches. 1900

    31 - Flowering field. 1909

    32 - Malcesine Castle on Lake Garda. 1913

    33 - Kammer Castle on the Attersee. 1910

    34 - Park. 1910

    35 - Poplar-giant, or an impending thunderstorm. 1903

    36 - Pond in the park of Kammer Castle. 1899

    37 - Church in Kasson. 1913

    38 - Road in the park of Kammer castle. 1912

    39 - Guardaboski's house. 1912

    40 - Peasant house in Upper Austria. 1912

    41 - Apple tree. 1916

    42 - Flower garden. 1905-1906

    43 - Castle Kammer on the lake Attersee. 1912

    44 - Dancer. 1906

    45 - Kiss. 1907-1908

    46 - Love. 1895



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