1. Gustav Klimt Austrian Painter, 1862 – 1918
If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and art,
please a few.
Gustav Klimt was known for his use of gold leaf in his paintings, which may have been influenced by the fact that his father was a gold engraver! He was born in 1862 in Vienna, into a family of seven children, with little means to get by. He quit school at 14, but was able to enroll in a local college of arts and crafts, in hopes of his finding a way to make a living as an artisan.
His teachers recognized his talent and found him a scholarship for the Vienna School of Decorative Art. At a very young age, he was able to make money with his art.
With his brother, also an artist, he formed a studio where wealthy people came to ask that art be made for them (called “a commission”).

2. Klimt first was known as an architectural decorator, painting murals and friezes for palaces, theatres and museums. He used gold paint, created intricate detail, and
You can see from the painting on the left that he had the talent and training to paint in a realistic style. He even received a medal from the Austrian Emperor for this painting! His portrait on the right is also a good likeness of Mr Pembaue, but you can see from the background and frame that Klimt is starting to break out of the box. As he became more successful, he began to develop his own modern style.
That style was known as Vienna Secession, because the artists “seceded” from, or left, the traditionalist school of art to do things in a freer, more modern way. No longer did Klimt’s work please the Emperor – he ordered his drivers never to pass by a building where any Secessionist art was displayed.
Auditorium in the Old Burgtheatre (1889) and Portrait of Joseph Pembaue (1890)

3. “Dress Reform” and Portrait of Emilie Floge (1902)
As things were changing in the art world, they were changing in society, too. Women wanted more independence, and freedom from uncomfortable dresses was a place to start! Klimt’s girlfriend Emilie Floge was a successful businesswoman who owned a dress shop with her sister. Klimt helped her design flowing, beautiful dresses with no tight corsets – made of whalebones! – underneath. He painted her wearing one of their designs, complete with all his patterns.
All through his life, Klimt loved to paint the female form, both as portraits of society women and women friends, and as mythological, dreamy women depicted as nymphs and goddesses.
“Dress Reform” and Portrait of Emilie Floge (1902)

4. Portrait of Freiza Riedler (1906)
In 1903 Klimt visited Venice and Ravenna, two cities known for their amazing, intricate mosaics and use of gold and other precious metals and stones. These experiences begin soon to have an effect on his paintings. Here he has painted the lady’s face and dress rather life-like, but the fabric on her chair shows the geometric direction his art is going.
This is one of his most famous portraits, which were becoming popular among Vienna’s elite at the time. Lucky for Klimt, even as he pushed the boundaries of current style, there were wealthy people for whom supporting a scandalously “modern” artist was fashionable.
Portrait of Freiza Riedler (1906)

5. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, or Woman in Gold (1907)
And this is probably his most famous portrait. Klimt was hired by a wealthy Jewish businessman to paint a portrait of his wife. He had mastered the art of combining gold leaf and patterning with more lifelike renderings of the person’s face. Adele almost seems to be swimming in gold, reflecting her family’s wealth as well as her “goddess” stature. It took him three years to complete.
But the portrait has a sad story. The Nazis seized the painting in 1938 along with everything else owned by the family. Adele had died years earlier; the other family members either fled Austria or were sent to concentration camps. They lost everything.
Many years later, Adele’s niece, who had escaped to America, decided to get the picture back from the Austrian government. It’s a complicated story, told well in the movie Woman in Gold. After a long legal battle, Maria got her beloved aunt’s portrait back. It was ultimately sold to a museum so everyone could enjoy it. It really is a marvel.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, or Woman in Gold (1907)

6. Or maybe this might be Klimt’s most famous painting, the high point of his “gold period.” It was probably the most popular in his lifetime. You can see how he has used patterns to define the shapes – the man’s robe, the woman’s dress, the ground, the background. It’s very flat, with the only modelling (shading) to be seen on parts of the couple’s body.
It’s huge – 6 feet by 6 feet, and the gold glow is overwhelming in person. It almost seems like a painting from a much earlier age, its stylized, decorative roots in illuminated manuscripts and even the ancient Japanese art.
Some people say the woman in the picture is Emilie, but that’s not for sure.
The Kiss (1908)

7. Garden Path with Chicken (1917) and Tree of Life (1905)
Klimt often painted nature, but he would arrange it as he saw it, with the overall effect being more important than realism. Are those really bushes and flowers on the left, or just more of Klimt’s patterns? At least the chicken looks real.
The tree on the right is part of a huge mural that we’ll see in a minute. He has made his favorite spirals into the branches of the tree! Odd birds and flowers are perched among the branches.
Garden Path with Chicken (1917) and Tree of Life (1905)

8. Stoclet Frieze (1905) and room where it was created
A very rich man in Brussels hired one of Klimt’s Viennese friends as the architect for his new house, and the friend got Klimt a job decorating the dining room. Actually, not only Klimt is hired, but many artists from a studio he belongs to. The group of friends turn the house into a gigantic work of art, with every detail from the windows to the furniture to the knives and forks made in Art Nouveau style.
For his contribution, Klimt created large mosaics made of tiny chips of semi-precious stones and metals, like coral, malachite, marble, colored glass, gold and copper.
Stoclet Frieze (1905) and room where it was created

9. Maeda Primavesi (1912) and Eugenia Primavesi (1913)
Klimt was living a very eccentric, unconventional life, as he took his painting in new directions. His studio was full of models -- and cats -- and he preferred to wear long robes and sandals instead of pants and jackets. But even so, society people still wanted to sit for portraits by him.
Here’s a mother-daughter pair, family members of a wealthy banker and arts patron. Even though Miss Maeda is painted more realistically than some of Klimt’s figures, still there is a lot of patterning in the background and carpet. In fact if you look closely at the painting you can see that there are tiny figures of animals – cats, fish, birds – decorating the rug!
Maeda’s mother was an actress, and her portrait is even more a riot of pattern and color. Her pretty face almost seems to be from another painting!
Maeda Primavesi (1912) and Eugenia Primavesi (1913)

10. Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer (1916) and Lady with a Fan (1917)
Klimt, like many artists throughout Europe at this time, found ideas for his paintings in the art of the Far East. The lady on the left has a whole Korean tournament going on behind her. Between that and the clashing patterns on her dress and coat, it’s hard to focus on her lovely face.
The wallpaper behind the lady with the fan also looks Asian in style, plus she is wearing a kimono. Many fashionable people of this time decorated their homes with things they collected from the Far East.
Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer (1916) and Lady with a Fan (1917)

11. Yes, there’s a baby in there somewhere
Yes, there’s a baby in there somewhere! (And you can go see him at the National Gallery in DC.) Klimt, as usual, surrounds his subject with a his inventive genius, creating flowers, spirals, zigzags and rainbow-like arches of contrasting colors. They say that Klimt had 14 children of his own! Maybe this baby was one of those.
Klimt died from a stroke caused by the influenza epidemic of 1918, at the age of 56. His last words reportedly were, "Get Emilie." She inherited half of Klimt's estate, the other half going to the painter's siblings.
His works remain very popular, as people continue to appreciate the striking visual combinations of the old and the modern, the real and the abstract. Their beauty cannot be denied.
Baby (1917)

12. Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer II (1912)
One last story about a Klimt painting. We can’t even be sure how many there were, because many never made it through World War II. One group of them we know were destroyed when the castle where they were being stored was burned by retreating Germans.
Not only was “Woman in Gold” returned to the family, but four others were returned as well, including the second portrait Klimt made of Adele. It was put on the market and sold for about $88 million to an anonymous buyer, then was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Ten years later, and after many offers for the painting, the owner agreed it sell it for $150 million. In the course of the sale, the seller was discovered to be Oprah Winfrey! The sad part of the story is that it was sold to an anonymous Chinese buyer and may never be on public display again.
Portrait of Adele Block-Bauer II (1912)