Gustav Klimt - vendere e comprare opere
14 July 1862, Baumgarten (Austria) - 6 February 1918, Vienna (Austria)
Gustav Klimt was a noteworthy painter and illustrator of the Austrian Modernist period. Among others, Klimt was a member of the Society of Fine Artists in Vienna (Künstlerhaus) and a prominent representative of the Vienna Secession. Klimt also had contact with the members of the Vienna Workshops due to their cooperation with the Vienna Secession.
Klimt received a scholarship from the Vienna Arts and Crafts School of the Imperial Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, which enabled him to study under Ferdinand Laufberger, Victor Berger and Michael Rieser from 1875 to 1880. Klimt’s style was influenced by the works of Ferdinand Laufberger, Hans Makart and Lawrence Alma Tadema. Stylistic elements of the Pre-Raphaelite period and a critical evaluation of late Impressionism were also evident. Klimt’s works were deeply imbued with an expressive style that nevertheless showed expansiveness and the frequent use of gold leaf.
During the 1880s, Klimt joined with Franz Matsch and his brother Ernst to found the Company of Artists. The Company received numerous commissions (among them to design drape and ceiling paintings like the frescoes in the new Burgtheater and in the Vienna Hermesvilla). In 1891, Klimt became a member of the Society of Fine Artists (Künstlerhaus), but left the group six years later to cofound the Vienna Secession, of which he was the first president (1897-1899). Klimt produced numerous illustrations and artistic templates for the Journal of the Vienna Secession, Ver Sacrum (1898-1903).
Klimt and Matsch produced preliminary designs for faculty portraits at the University of Vienna in 1900. But the university professors and the media were vehemently opposed to Klimt’s paintings. In response, Klimt withdrew from the commission in 1905, returned the fee he had received and took back his works. Regrettably, the paintings are no longer preserved and were burned during the Second World War. Klimt created a series of famous pieces, notably the Beethoven Frieze in the Vienna Secession, the Stoclet Frieze for Stoclet Palace in Brussels, The Kiss, as well as numerous landscape paintings and portraits. Moreover, Klimt created practical Victorian-era dress designs for his muse and life partner Emilie Flöge.
Klimt and Carl Moll left the Vienna Secession in 1905 and instead joined the Association of German Artists. Klimt received a number of awards during his lifetime (e.g. the Imperial Prize from the Society of Fine Artists Vienna in 1890, Honorary Membership of the Royal Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in 1905, President of the Association of Austrian Artists in 1912 and Honorary Member of the Academy of Fine Artists in 1917). Despite his immense importance within the world of art, Klimt did not have any students. He nevertheless influenced the work of future painters, among them Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele.