Gustav Klimt
27th May 2022
His Early Life
His father, Ernst Klimt, was a gold engraver and his mother, Anna Fenster, was an aspiring musical performer. He was the second of his parents’ seven children, two brothers, and four sisters. The family, poor as it was, lived in the small suburb of Baumgartner, southwest of Vienna. Klimt’s family kept moving from place to place in search of cheaper housing.
Family struck by Early Tragedy and Poverty
Klimt’s family suffered several incidents of tragedy during the early phase of his life. While one of his sisters died following a long bout of illness in 1874, his other sister suffered a mental breakdown after succumbing to religious fervour. The only solace that Klimt and his family had in their family was that Klimt and his two brothers, Ernst and George, displayed indications of artistic gifts from the early days of their life.
However, Gustav’s stood out as an exceptional draftsman while studying in secondary school. In 1876, when he was fourteen, he received encouragement to take the entrance examination for the Viennese School of Arts and Crafts. He was also the founder of the school of painting known as the Vienna Secession.
His Art Education
Klimt’s early education took place at the Vienna School of Decorative Arts. The focus of his studies was architectural painting from 1876 to 1883. After his early education in decorative arts, he opened an independent studio specializing in the execution of mural paintings in 1883. He started his artistic skills y drawing from copies and casts and then from real life. Later on, he excelled in this field of arts.
Klimt studied other Venetian Renaissance artists, like Titian and the Flemish Baroque, Peter Paul Rubens. Klimt was also heavily influenced by other famous artists like Diego Velazquez, Hans Makart, etc.
Budding Career
After graduating from the Vienna School of Decorative Arts, Klimt started the ‘Company of Artists’ with his brother Ernst and their friend Franz Masch around early 1880. The services offered by his company included creating decorative murals and paintings for various upper-class figures. The three painters painted theatres, churches, public buildings and other spaces like homes of the rich and the wealthy.
Some notable examples include the staircase paintings in Kunsthistorisches Museum (Museum of Fine Arts) in Vienna and the ceiling paintings of the Vienna Burg theatre. IN 888, the Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I presented the group with the award called the Golden Order of Merit. The painting ‘Altar of Dionysos’ painted on the ceiling of the Vienna Burgtheater is one fine example of his artistic excellence.
Klimt and His Company
By the turn of the 19th century, Klimt had already enjoyed a fruitful career of more than two decades, particularly working on public commissions in the company of his ‘1979 -born Company’ that included his brother Ernst and his friend Franz Matsch. They became so well-known that their work took them far beyond the Austrian capital, across the former Austro-Hungarian empire.
The city of Rijeka, Croatia is home to an ornate theatre designed by the prominent Viennese architects Ferdinand Fellner and Herman Helmer. The architects mainly engaged Viennese artists in their projects and they entrusted the decoration of Rijeka’s theatre to the then-young painters Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch.
‘Beauty of Female Faces Stand Out’
The artists were commissioned to complete nine canvases for the auditorium of the theatre, depicting mythical and historical scenes. Out of these nine paintings, Klimt completed three, namely, ‘Saint Cecilia’, ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’ and ‘Mark Anthony and Cleopatra’. These works have remained in the auditorium to this day.
Experts say confidently that these paintings really stand out for their refinement in the treatment of female faces, as witnessed with the beautiful characters of Eurydice, St. Cecilia, and Cleopatra. A senior conservator-restorer at the Rijeka Department for Conservation explained after removing the deposits of dirt the richness of Klimt’s palette and the lightness of his brushstrokes have come to the fore.
The conservators went on to say that it was interesting to recognize in these paintings the genius of the young painter, Klimt, who painted them at a very young age with extreme ease and confidence and was ‘preparing to push the boundaries of his time‘.
‘Judith and the Head of Holofernes’
‘Judith and the Head of Holofernes’ was one of Klimt’s most famous paintings, which he painted in 1901. The painting depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading him. This was one of the most popular subjects of western painting since the Renaissance.
Other famous painters like Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi have also portrayed this scene in their own style. Klimt painted the second work on this subject in1909. In 1984, the Company of Artists received a commission to paint the Great Hall’s auditorium ceiling at the University of Vienna.
The ‘Company’ completed the job in seven years and the murals appealed to a niche group of people that accommodates more traditional academic styles of art.
A Turning Point for Klimt’s Artistic Style
Klimt lost both his father and brother in 1892 and with this turn of events, Klimt had to be financially responsible for the rest of the family. The depths of his near ones left Klimt emotionally affected and his artistic style became more symbolic in nature, moving away from the academic and traditional styles of art that he practiced till then.
Around this period, Klimt had become acquainted with his widowed brother’s sister-in-law, Emilie Floge. According to art historians, Floge was Klimt’s lifelong companion and the characters in his famous painting ‘The Kiss’ were that of his and Floge. His other painting ‘Portrait of Emille Floge’ also featured his companion Emile Floge.
‘The Vienna Secession’
The Vienna Session is an art movement formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects and Gustav Klimt was one of them. One of the members of the group described the goal of the Vienna Secession as the one to show the modern men his true face.
In 1905 the group split when some of the most prominent members, including Klimt, resigned due to a dispute over priorities. The group still continues to function even today from its headquarters in the Secession Building.
‘The Kiss’
Klimt’s painting ‘The Kiss’ is a part of the Golden phase paintings and is a good example of his excellence in the art of painting. At a first glance, what one can see is a golden cocoon with two figures wrapped in a loving embrace. The man can be seen leaning down to kiss the woman below and the woman has apparently surrendered to the act of love and the man’s embrace.
The greenery that the couple is seen standing on and the composition around the couple represent the meadow. There are flowers dangling from the bottom of the woman’s quilt and falling over the edge of the embankment. What is important and worth watching in the painting is the golden quilt wrapped around the couple. Klimt painted this famous work with his characteristic gold leaf and silver.
Gustav Klimt developed a new and almost unique method that allowed him to apply natural, wafer-thin gold leaf onto the canvas. In addition to gold leaf, Klimt also applied fine silver flakes to some are of the painting. With this technique, Klimt delivered an excellent and innovative contribution to the European style of Art.
‘Lady with Fan’
Gustav Klimt completed the canvas ‘Lady with Fan’ in 1918 when he was 55 years of age. The famous artist also died in the same year. Shortly after his death, the art collector Rudolf Leopold acquired the painting and exhibited it at an innovative cultural site in the center of Vienna in 1920. The painting is a simple composition of a slender female figure embellished with what looks like primary oriental fabric.
The lady is seen holding a fan, apparently hiding her partial nudity and her face exudes confidence. In the background, the artist has painted a garden full of blooming flowers and exotic birds majestically perched in the yellow-ocher density.
Though there are examples of the painter’s works where there are instances of the artist having fiddled with the limits of decency, this marvelous painting is not at all in that category. This truly is a marvelous Italian masterpiece of art by one of the greatest artists in the history of art.
Klimt’s ‘Golden Phase’ and Death in 1918
Klimt made use of gold leaves in many of his paintings from this era and the prominent usage of gold can be first attributed to ‘Pallas Athene’ (1898), ‘Judith’ 1901), ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer !’ (1907) and ‘The Kiss’ (1907-1908). Klimt completed his other well-known work ‘The Virgin’ in 1913.
The painting is a depiction of a virgin surrounded by six other nude women. Klimt’s painting ‘The Fulfillment‘ which he finished in 1904 shows a man and a woman deeply embracing each other. According to experts, unlike in the case of ‘The Kiss,’ the true message is in the ornaments that cover them. ‘Death and Life‘ which Klimt completed in 1910 shows that life would have been a beautiful dream if there wasn’t death standing right next to it.
It is an allegory of life and death. The painting was awarded the first prize at the International Art Exhibition in Rome in 1911. In 1918, Klimt suffered thrombosis and became paralyzed on the right side. He died on 6th February 1918 due to a lung infection. His death marked the end of the most sensational, thought-provoking, and pathbreaking painters in the history of the world of art.
‘Three Ages of Woman‘,
Klimt’s 1905 painting depicts three different phases of a woman’s life, thus outlining the circle of life. The painting shows a woman holding her baby daughter while an elderly woman stands beside them. Klimt made this painting in his signature style, with gold and his stylistic emphasis on women.
‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer’
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I – Stretched Canvas
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer – Premium Framed Vertical Poster
Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I – Wood Canvas
Klimt’s 1907 painting ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer was the subject of a decade-long lawsuit between Maria Altmann, the niece of the portrait’s subject, and the Republic of Austria. Altmann eventually won the case and she sold this painting.
The painting, which is his 1907 oil, silver, and goldwork, is presently on view at Neue Galerie New York in the Klimt Gallery. The painting is the focus of an entire movie film ‘The Woman in Gold’ made in 2015. Klimt used gold in this painting in a variety of contexts, from the background scene to the shining fabric of Adele’s gown.
Legal battle and restitution of the painting
Commission of the painting
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer was a prominent Jewish Viennese businessman. He was a lifelong collector of art and used to commission many paintings by famous artists. He commissioned two portraits of his wife, Adele, by famous painter Gustav Klimt of the Viennese Secessionists.
Maria Altmann, a relative of the BlochBaeurs, used to visit their gorgeous house in Vienna. She remembered the walls of the house decked with beautiful pieces of art.
Adele’s death and request in the will
Adele died in the year 1925 of meningitis. In her will, Adele had requested Ferdinand to donate the Klimt paintings to the Austrian museum.
After the death of his wife, Ferdinand put up a Klimt painting in the bedroom but situated two full-length portraits of Adele and four landscapes of Gustav Klimt in a room that was a memorial for his wife.
Nazi invasion and looting
In the year 1938, the Nazis invaded the Austrian territory. When the Nazi army invaded Vienna, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer was forced to escape to Switzerland leaving his precious artwork behind. Of the artwork that was left behind were the 6 Klimt paintings.
As he had lost all his possessions during the Nazi occupation he felt there was no need to leave behind a will. He revoked his previous wills before his death in 1945 in exile. This becomes relevant later on.
War ends
War ended in 1945. Post-war settlement and restitution of exiled Jews were difficult and not forthcoming. After the war, all Nazi-looted artwork was confiscated by the allies and returned to the countries themselves in the hope that they will in turn return the artworks to their rightful owners. By that accord, the Klimt work ended up in the possessions of the Austrian Museum.
Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer had left his estate to his younger relatives Maria and her three siblings. Maria’s brother Robert attempted to retrieve their uncle’s property from Canada. Maria emigrated to the United States like many other Jewish people.
Restitution process
Restitution of artwork was not an easy process and is usually met with many hurdles. Although over the years, some developments have been positive in this regard. The year 1998 bought some significant changes to rules and regulations around restitution of stolen artwork.
In 1998, Austria and other 44 countries signed a nonbinding agreement called the Washington Principles on Nazi confiscated art. This spoke of fair restitution of stolen artwork to Jewish owners. Another important piece of legislation passed that year in the Austrian Parliament was a law requiring museums to open up their archives to scrutiny. An impetus for this was due to in part an article published by Hubertus Czernin, a journalist, about Nazi stolen art, stored away in government museums.
Discovery and new scrutiny
His findings showed that the Austrian Museum’s claim over the Klimt paintings, which originally belonged to the BlochBaeurs, was wrong. The claim of the museum that these paintings were donated by Adele herself in her will were found to be faulty as she was not the owner of the paintings. Her husband Ferdinand had commissioned and paid for the paintings and was therefore its rightful owner. It was his property to give away and not Adele’s.
Ferdinand never did donate the paintings as requested by his wife because he had revoked all previous wills before his death. Also, some evidence was found in the museum’s archives that showed that the paintings were in fact given to the museum in 1941, during the height of the second world war and the Nazi occupation of Austria.
Maria Altmann’s claim
In light of this and other efforts in this regard internationally, Maria sought to claim the paintings.
Maria, the last surviving member of Ferdinand’s family and legal heir applied to the Austrian government to return her family’s property, the Klimt artworks, to her. Her request was met with a demand for a prior deposit of half a million dollars. There were many obstructions in retrieving the paintings. Innumerable works of art owned by Jewish families were lost during and even after the war.
Maria sued the Austrian government in an attempt to retrieve the paintings. At the time Maria was 84 years old and worked as a specialty dress supplier. She was expected to pay a large sum of money to receive what was rightfully hers. Her repeated requests and lawsuits in Vienna yielded little result. However, in 2006, the Supreme Court of the United States allowed Ms. Altmann to sue the Austrian government. An agreement was reached after that which resulted in Ms. Altmann receiving 5 of the 6 Gustav Klimt paintings. Adele Bloch Bauer I now sits in the Neue Galerie, New York.
A documentary movie “Woman in gold” was also made based on these events.
References:
https://web.archive.org/web/20010205082100/http://www.adele.at/index.htm
http://www.adeleswish.com/