Contemporaries described the author of the famous “Kiss” as “primitive yet sophisticated, simple yet complex, but always inspired.” This characterization by his acquaintance, journalist Bertha Zuckerhandl, can be considered objective, as it reflects the diverse facets of the personality of the “isolated leader without predecessors or followers.”
“The Company of Painters”
Gustav Klimt was born on July 14, 1862, in what was then the Viennese suburb of Baumgarten. The artistic talent of the eldest son of Bohemian émigré Ernst Klimt and native Viennese Anna Rosalia Finster was inherited from his father, a graphic artist and gold engraver. In a family with seven children (Gustav was the second), two of his younger brothers also became artists: Ernst became a painter, while Georg became a sculptor, carver, metal artist, and medallist. Gustav’s artistic legacy would also be carried on by his nephew, illustrator and calligrapher Julius Zimpel (the son of Gustav’s younger sister Johanna, the only daughter of the Klimt family, who would start her own family, while sisters Clara and Hermina lived with their mother and brothers, and later with Gustav Klimt).
25-year-old Gustav Klimt (1887)
According to his daughters’ recollections, the children did not expect gifts for Christmas, as even bread was not always available in their home. Historical documents reveal that their father could earn only 8 guilders in two months, which was ten times less than the average wage of a worker. Financial strain was later alleviated by the earnings of the sons: Gustav, Georg, and Ernst received their education and first commissions at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts—the most progressive school of its time, affiliated with the Museum of Art and Industry, which trained a new generation of versatile specialists in applied arts. The future founder of the Vienna Secession (an exhibition and creative association of young artists who rebelled against the routine of academic art at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries) was shaped by a combination of artistic-aesthetic and craft-technical education.
“Idyll,” 1884
From 1879 to 1892, brothers Gustav and Ernst Klimt teamed up with their colleague Franz Matsch to form a creative collective known as “The Company of Painters” (after finishing their studies, the friends opened their own studio in Vienna). Gustav collaborated with his colleagues on church stained glass, painted the walls of historical buildings, and created portraits based on photographs of clients: later, photographic accuracy would become his “trademark,” and he would even take a camera and a telescope to capture images for his studies. Their similar painting style allowed the friends to substitute for each other while working. Each would propose their own set of sketches, from which the client would choose the best option, and all three would participate in the project’s realization. Instructors approved of this student activity and even helped them find clients.
“Athena Pallas,” 1898
Gustav Klimt specialized in architectural painting and worked with his company on artistic projects in the royal palace of Sturany in central Vienna, the imperial villa “Hermes,” the mineral water pavilion in Carlsbad, and the new Burgtheater. For his work on the audience hall, Klimt received the imperial award of 400 guilders in 1890, and in 1893, he was awarded a small gold medal for his work at the Burgtheater. The entire collective was honored for this project with the “Golden Cross” from Emperor Franz Joseph, and all three masters were accepted into the Artists’ Association. The improvement in the Klimt family’s financial situation allowed them to move in 1890 to a new home on Westbahnstraße, where Gustav would live for the rest of his life.
For the Sake of Art
In 1893, the successful trio of artists moved to a new studio in an idyllic garden pavilion, but the joy of this change was overshadowed for Gustav Klimt by heavy personal losses. Just before, in July and December 1892, both his father and beloved brother—both named Ernst Klimt—passed away in the same year. For the next five years, Gustav was drained by depression: he found himself in a deep emotional and creative crisis. Although he carefully concealed his vulnerable state, he could not work as he had before without his brother. Creative differences arose with his colleague Franz Matsch, and both partners chose solitude.
Their last joint commission was the decoration of the assembly hall at the University of Vienna. Gustav Klimt was to paint three of the five works: “Philosophy,” “Medicine,” and “Jurisprudence.” The state client was dissatisfied with the replacement of historicism with symbolism: any manifestations of modernism at that time were perceived as “an attack on the foundations.” The scandal drew public attention to the artist. At exhibitions where Klimt’s “controversial” paintings were displayed, his new artistic language found not only critics but also supporters. The rebel received external support: at the World Exhibition in Paris, Klimt’s painting “Philosophy” was awarded a gold medal.
Scenes from “Philosophy,” “Medicine,” and “Jurisprudence” from the “Faculty Paintings” cycle, destroyed during World War II and known to art historians only through black-and-white photographs, were recreated in color by Google experts using AI.
“When submitting a completed work, the artist should not waste additional time on justifications,” Klimt noted. “What matters is not how many people like my paintings, but who appreciates them.” A staunch defender of the artist’s position and new art was writer and journalist Bertha Zuckerhandl. She informed the world about the state commission’s refusal to accept Klimt’s “Faculty Paintings” by publishing a letter from the disgraced artist to the Minister of Education, in which the author of the rejected works expressed his readiness to immediately return the 60,000 crowns advance he had received and promised never to serve the Austrian state again.
Gustav Klimt
Upon learning of the artist’s decision to leave the unwanted paintings unchanged and take them for himself, the government refused to accept the returned advance and demanded the delivery of the commission. However, when the transport workers arrived at the studio, no one answered the door. The owner of all three, or at least two of the three canvases, became wealthy industrialist (alcohol magnate) and patron August Lederer. Although the fate of “new art” would prove difficult in the future (in the 1930s, the private collection of the patron of the Vienna Secession and the artist himself was nationalized, and on May 8, 1945, Klimt’s “Faculty Paintings,” along with 13 other works, were destroyed in a fire at Immenhof Castle), the artist’s principled stance added to his professional “weight.”
The First President
Gustav Klimt’s election as the first president of the Vienna Secession, which provided exhibition spaces for the Austrian avant-garde and attracted foreign modernism to Vienna, was explained by his ability to achieve success independently of state support. This was precisely the kind of leader that “informal” artists demanded—eccentric and unique yet resolute and serious. The brutal interpretation of the ancient theme in his application painting “Athena Pallas” announced to society the arrival of a controversial personality on the Viennese art scene, sensitive to “subtle feelings.” His “Beethoven Frieze” was filled with such “delicate impressions” that “unprepared” viewers found the paintings offensive and labeled what they saw as “pornography in painting.”
Artists representing the Secession in 1902 (Klimt is second from the left, seated in a chair)
Opponents of the artist’s creative style claimed that his art was “worthy of pagan orgies,” but he had no place in a hall where people came to enjoy Viennese culture. And you wouldn’t want to see that! Klimt is considered the founder of a “separate genre”—”female sensuality”: he created a consistent series of sketches depicting the process of female self-pleasure, and these works are not denied artistic merit by art historians. Colleagues were also displeased with the mixing of artistic and applied exhibitions in the Secession, where works of art were sold alongside “household items.” Despite the criticism, the first solo exhibition in the Secession in 1903 was dedicated to Gustav Klimt’s work, and it turned out to be commercially successful: the revenue amounted to 36,000 crowns.
“Water Serpents II,” 1904-1907
The artist infused his works with value, even in his choice of materials: he worked with precious stones, marble, ceramics, mother-of-pearl, crystal, enamel, silver, and gold. The impression from the golden mosaics in the cathedrals of Venice and Ravenna strengthened the artist’s interest in gold leaf after trips to Italy in 1899 and 1903. Although the expressive means of gold were used by the son of a jeweler in his painting since his student days, the pearl of Klimt’s “golden period” became “The Kiss” (both for its use of gold and its ornamental style). At the 1908 Vienna Art Exhibition, the Austrian artist’s most famous painting was submitted unfinished and was immediately purchased by the state even in that form.
“The Kiss,” 1908
Meanwhile, after “The Kiss” and “Judith I,” Gustav Klimt completely abandoned both gold and geometric ornamentation. After participating in the 1909 Vienna Art Exhibition alongside French colleagues Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Henri Matisse, the Austrian modernist also became fascinated with color experiments. He even visited Paris for the first and last time: over the years, Klimt’s style combined Victorian painting, Belgian symbolism, French Impressionism, mosaic techniques of decorative applied arts, and Asian motifs.
“Golden Adele,” 1907
Wine Heat and War
The Austrian artist, who exhibited abroad, was deprived of such opportunities at home: after being removed from leadership in the Secession by a one-vote margin, Klimt left the association with his group, and for three years, artists had no place to exhibit in their native Vienna. Instead, in 1908 and 1909, with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Klimt and his colleagues managed to organize exhibitions of a grand scale that Vienna had never seen before. About a thousand works of art were presented, and Klimt’s paintings from the five-year period (“The Kiss,” “Danaë,” “Golden Adele,” “Three Ages of Woman,” other female portraits, and landscapes) once again caused a sensation: they were the subject of… a cycle of eight caricatures in the satirical magazine Die Muskete.
“Three Ages of Woman,” 1905
Contrary to expectations, the first exhibition did not recoup its expenses: sales were hindered by an unprecedented heatwave in Vienna during the summer of 1908. The second reason for the problems was the sharp criticism from one of the exhibition participants, young student of Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka. The mentor recognized in the newcomer himself during the period of failure with the “Faculty Paintings” and showed his support for the student in every way. However, Klimt no longer engaged in organizing art exhibitions from that time on. Reclusive and focused on his work, he understood that only daily painting helped him maintain his mental balance. He was very attached to his family, where he hid from life’s storms. Klimt protected his nest from the aggressive world, never inviting anyone to his home, and he would not open the studio door without a specific knock.
The studio of Klimt, reconstructed in 2013 at his villa. The exhibition features copies of the paintings “Woman with a Fan” and “The Bride” (both circa 1917-18).
Remaining the primary breadwinner for the family, the artist took on the care of his mother, sisters, and two Helens—the widow of his brother and his niece. At one time, Gustav Klimt became close to his brother’s wife’s younger sister—designer, gallery owner, and co-owner of a fashion salon Emilia Flöge. Researchers believe that it was she whom the artist depicted in the painting “The Kiss” (originally titled “The Lovers”). The self-sufficient businesswoman did not become the artist’s wife: the couple separated in 1899 when Klimt became infatuated with 19-year-old Alma Schindler, and his two models (both named Maria, Uchytska and Zimmermann) became pregnant at the same time. However, it was Emilia Flöge who remained Klimt’s lifelong friend: she solved his problems, organized trips, arranged meetings, and planned vacations. Interesting facts about Gustav Klimt’s life: the bachelor had numerous sexual relationships, and 14 illegitimate children from various women claimed his inheritance.
Portrait of Emilia Flöge, 1902
In the last six years of his life, Klimt spent, according to friends, “in splendid solitude.” He moved his studio closer to nature. The single-story house in Hietzing was located next to Schönbrunn Park. The studio was adjacent to the same “pink garden” that the artist depicted in 1912 in the painting of the same name. Klimt’s last “protest as a rebel” was a retreat into beauty and harmony. He ended his life as a “ladies’ painter” and earned well from portrait commissions based on photographs during the war years. This was his way of pushing World War I out of his consciousness, as anxiety affected Gustav Klimt’s style, disturbing his fragile emotional balance and adding gloom to his paintings. He no longer wanted to depict people with closed eyes and tangled up in thoughts of death, the meaning of life, and the end of the world. Surrounded by sculptures and Japanese woodblock prints, Klimt wanted to bring joy to people with bright colors. In 1912, Gustav Klimt headed the Austrian Artists’ Association, in 1915 he buried his mother, in 1917 he was elected an honorary member of the Vienna and Munich Academy of Arts, and on February 6, 1918, he died of a stroke.
“Apple Tree I,” 1912
P.S. The facts of Gustav Klimt’s biography were deemed worthy of attention by biographers, but not by him. “If you want to know something about me, look at my paintings,” the reticent artist advised people.