Gustav Klimt was born on July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna. He was the second of seven children born to a meticulous engraver and carver. Klimt's family was very poor and had to move frequently to ever cheaper living quarters. In 1873, Austria experienced an economic crisis and Klimt's father was unemployed for some time.

Judith

by Gustav Klimt 

Klimt's talent was recognized at an early age. He entered the School of Arts and Trades of Vienna at the age of fourteen. Klimt, along with his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch, were so talented that their professors allowed them to work on their own decoration projects. At the time, Klimt's style was hyperrealistic, inspired by the work of Hans Makart, one of the most famous painters of the day.

In 1892, Klimt and Matsch were commissioned by the Ministry of Culture and Education to decorate the Great Hall of the University. Matsch was to paint Theology. Klimt was to paint the other three, Philosophy, Jurisprudence and Medicine. The critics and general public were offended by his works. The Austrian Congress conducted a poll over his paintings and Klimt was incriminated for "pornography and excessive perversion."

Schloss Kammer Sull'Attersee

by Gustav Klimt

The scandal over these paintings caused Klimt to reflect that public commissions were not compatible with his work.

From 1894 until 1897, Klimt was a member of the Cooperative Society of Artists, a conservative organization. Membership was essential to every artist hoping to make a living. By 1897, Klimt and other members thought that this society had exerted a negative influence on Austrian art and so they formed their own group, named the Association of Austrian Visual Artists, widely known as the Secession.

The Secession had three main aims: to provide young artists the opportunity to exhibit their work, to bring to Vienna the best foreign artists, and to publish its own magazine, Ver Sacrum.

Die Tanzerin

by Gustav Klimt

In one of the notable paintings that announced a change in Klimt's career, Nuda Veritas, 1899, includes a quotation from the dramatist Schiller: "If you cannot please everyone with your art, please a few. To please many is bad." Gustav Klimt had previously worked hard to please his public. He now recognized no standards but his own.

By 1907, Klimt began to doubt. The Secession's ideal, the harmony of the arts and the redemption of the world through art had proven to be an unachievable utopia. He decided to abandon The Secession.

Klimt began exploring the theme of sexuality in art. He painted women and their maddening eroticism. His work was celebrated and he became a popular portraitist of women. However, the open eroticism of his work clashed with the Victorian repression of the day. Klimt intriguingly painted women nude before painting in their clothing.

Klimt also painted landscapes based on the work of the Impressionists. As usual, though, he was interested in his own approach. Rather than dwell on the play of light and shadows over time, Klimt built enameled mosaics by mixing naturalism and modernism. Strangely, Klimt did not draw sketches or studies for his landscapes, even though he was a studio painter and accustomed to doing this for his portraits and allegories.

Gustav Klimt never married nor is there any evidence that he had a long-term relationship with any woman. However, many of the models who posed for Klimt were at one time or another his lover. Visitors to Klimt's studio were often surprised to find two or three women lounging around in a state of undress. Klimt's sensual works depicting naked and often aroused women provide a clear insight into his sexuality and attitude toward women.

Klimt died of pneumonia a few months before the outbreak of World War I.

"Whoever wants to know something about me—as an artist, the only notable thing—ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do."

- Gustav Klimt

     

"All art is erotic."

- Gustav Klimt

"Gustav Klimt first made himself known by the decorations he executed (with his brother and their art school companion F. Matsch), for numerous theatres and above all (on his own this time) for the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, where he completed, in a coolly photographic style, the work begun by Makart. At the age of thirty he moved into his own studio and turned to easel painting. At thirty-five he was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession; he withdrew eight years later, dismayed by the increasingly strong trend towards naturalism.

"The coruscating sensuality of Klimt's work might seem in perfect accord with a society which recognized itself in those frivolous apotheoses of happiness and well-being, the operettas of Johann Strauss and Franz Léhar. Nothing could be further from the truth. Far from being acknowledged as the representative artist of his age, Klimt was the target of violent criticism; his work was sometimes displayed behind a screen to avoid corrupting the sensibilities of the young. His work is deceptive. Today we see in it the Byzantine luxuriance of form, the vivid juxtaposition of colors derived from the Austrian rococo - aspects so markedly different from the clinical abruptness of Egon Schiele. But we see it with expectations generated by epochs of which his own age was ignorant.

"For the sumptuous surface of Klimt's work is by no means carefree. Its decorative tracery expresses a constant tension between ecstasy and terror, life and death. Even the portraits, with their timeless aspect, may be perceived as defying fate. Sleep, Hope (a pregnant woman surrounded by baleful faces) and Death are subjects no less characteristic than the Kiss. Yet life's seductions are still more potent in the vicinity of death, and Klimt's works, although they do not explicitly speak of impending doom, constitute a sort of testament in which the desires and anxieties of an age, its aspiration to happiness and to eternity, receive definitive expression. For the striking two-dimensionality with which Klimt surrounds his figures evokes the gold ground of Byzantine art, a ground that, in negating space, may be regarded as negating time - and thus creating a figure of eternity. Yet in Klimt's painting, it is not the austere foursquare figures of Byzantine art that confront us, but ecstatically intertwined bodies whose flesh seems the more real for their iconical setting of gold."

- From "Symbolism", a Taschen art book by Michael Gibson

Further reading on Gustav Klimt:

Gustav Klimt 1862-1918: The World in Female Form, by Gottfried Fliedt. From the Taschen "Big Art" series, good overview, great reproductions, excellent value.

Gustav Klimt: Painter of Women, by Susanna Partsch. From Pegasus Library, small format volume concentrating on Klimt's relationship with Emilie Floge and others.

Gustav Klimt: One Hundred Drawings, by Alfred Werner. Gustav Klimt was a masterful draftsman, as this volume proves.

Gustav Klimt: 25 Masterworks, by Jane Kallir. Very large reproductions, Klimt's "greatest Hits".

"I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written word, especially if I have to say something about myself or my work. Whoever wants to know something about me -as an artist, the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try and see in them what I am and what I want to do."

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was a controversial figure in his time. His work was constantly criticized for being too sensual and erotic, and his symbolism too deviant. Today, they stand out as the more important paintings ever to come out of Vienna.

1862

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Birth of Gustav Klimt in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Austria. His father is a gold engraver but unsuccessful in business. The family lives in poverty.

1876

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At the age of 14, Klimt enters the Vienna Public Art School. Noticed for his talents, he receives his first commissions while studying.

1883

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Klimt, his brother Ernst and Franz Matsch form the Känstlercompanie (Company of Artists) and start a productive cooperation. Works for theaters, churches and museums were ordered by several patrons.

1886-1892

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Klimt executes mural decorations for staircases at the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. He contributes for a series called Allegories and Emblems. Its success leads to a second large order, containing Klimt's painting "Tragedy", announcing all of his stylistic characteristics: gold paint, areas of detail and areas of abstract space, symbolism, the female figure.

1891

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He becomes a member of the Co-operative Society of Austrian Artists.

1892

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Death of his father and brother Ernst. He moves to a larger studio.

1893

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Klimt and Matsch are commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of the new University of Vienna. Due to a falling-out between Klimt and Matsch, the works are greatly delayed. The series of paintings, "Philosophy", "Medecine" and "Jurisprudence", provoked widespread controversy. He is never to accept a public commission again.

1897

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As Klimt feels his integrety as an artist is under threat, The Secession Mouvement is formed, focusing on exposure for young, unconventional artists, bringing quality foreign art to Vienna and publishing a magazine.

1898-1905

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The first large exhibition of foreign work organized by the Secession attracts 57.000 visitors. "Ver Sacrum", its monthly magazine, starts to publish. The Secession completes its own exhibition building and rapidly becomes the leading Artist Association in Vienna. Klimt will remain at the center of Secession activity until 1905.

1898

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Klimt paints "Sonia Knips" at the Dumba Palace Music Room.

1900

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His first painting for the University of Vienna, "Philosophy" is exhibited unfinished at the Paris World Fair and wins the Grand Prix. He paints the portrait of Rose von Rosthorn-Friedmann.

1901

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Klimt paints "Medicine" and "Judith and Holofernes"

1902

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In the Secession Building, the statue of Max Klinger, "Beethoven", is accompanied by Klimt's "Beethoven Frieze". He also paints the portrait of Emilie Flöge in a dress that she designed.

1903

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Klimt travels to Ravenna and Florence and paints "Jurisprudence".

1904

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Klimt paints "Water Snakes" and is commissioned to paint the series of mosaic murals (1905-1909) for the Palais Stoclet, an opulent private mansion in Brussels.

1905

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Several artists and Klimt himself resign from Secession and form a new association called "Kunstschau" (Art Show). The artist paints "The three ages of Woman".

1907

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The works "Danae", a very erotic work depicting the conception of Perseus by Zeus, and "Adele Bloch-Bauer" are painted.

1908

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Klimt paints "The Kiss", in which he celebrates the attraction of the sexes.

1909

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Klimt paints "Judith II" and "Hope" in which he juxtaposes the promise of new life with the destroying force of death.

1911

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Klimt travels to Rome and Florence, paints "Death and Life".

1913

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Klimt paints "The Virgin".

1914

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Klimt paints "Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt".

1917

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Klimt paints "Baby" (unfinished). Paints "Schönbrunn Landscape" among other landscape scenes.

1918

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On January 11th, Klimt suffers a stroke in his apartment and dies on February 6th from pneumonia.