Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolism artist who lived from 1862 to 1918. Klimt was a founding member of the now famous Vienna Secession movement. They rejected the academic restraints of traditional art, allowing up-and-coming artists to create with freedom. He was highly successful in his life.
Klimt was one of seven children. He was born into an artistic family. His mother was a performer, his father an engraver, and his brothers were also artists in their own right. Between 1876 and 1883, he studied architectural painting at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, Austria.
Gustav Klimt started off his professional career in a company, the “Company of Artists” that included himself, his two brothers, and an artist friend. They did commission work, painting murals on walls and ceilings within public buildings. After his father and brother died in 1892, Klimt had to take on the financial responsibility of their families. The company dissolved and as Klimt was now on his own, this period marked a more personal growth in his art style. It was around this time that he also started a relationship with Emilie Louise Flöge. Flöge was a fashion designer who would serve as his muse and companion for the rest of his life. In 1897, Klimt helped found the Vienna Secession art group. This group had their own exhibitions and magazine publishing the work of its members.
Klimt’s favorite subject was the female body, though he did many landscapes as well. Many of his works contained nude women and were criticized for being too erotic in nature. A lot of the complaints came from the general public who thought his nude figures did not belong in public art. This made Klimt stop accepting public commissions.
Starting in 1898, Klimt accompanied Emilie Flöge and her family on their annual vacations to Lake Attersee in northern Austria. He would spend months waking up early each day to explore the natural surroundings. It is here where he painted most of his well-known landscapes. These landscapes exhibit much of the same mosaic and patterning as well as the flattened space seen in his figurative pieces.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Klimt entered his ‘Golden Phase’ in which he adorned a lot of his work with gold leaf. He was extremely successful during this time and was hired to do work to adorn personal residences as well as personal portraits. In 1911, Klimt received the first prize in the Word Exhibition held in Rome for his painting titled “Death and Life” which was a huge achievement.
Klimt worked hard and lived in his studio. As he spent most of his time at home, he was usually dressed in a painting robe, sandals, and nothing else. He mostly kept to himself, not spending time in cafes with other artists, as was common during his day. Gustav Klimt died prematurely in 1918 from the Spanish Influenza which caused him to also suffer a stroke and pneumonia. He was just 55 years old.
Klimt was, and remains, a huge influence for many artists that came after him, particularly Egon Schiele. Today, his art is among those pieces with the highest selling prices.
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