Gustav Klimt is one of the most famous and important artists of Art Nouveau. His works have been reproduced hundreds of thousands of times and his art has achieved worldwide fame. What not everyone knows is that he was a shy, silent artist, whose life is still wrapped in an aura of mystery.
“Whoever wants to know something about me, as an artist (the only thing worth knowing), should look attentively at my paintings and try to find in them who I am and what I want.”
This was one of the rare statements made by Gustav Klimt, an artist we know very little about, even though he lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He was very reserved, very silent and especially jealous of his private life.
In short, in a world like ours, where we’re all super-connected and struggle to safeguard our privacy, Klimt certainly wouldn’t have felt at ease.
But why was he so withdrawn?
A very interesting thing to know is that he didn’t think much of himself. He believed he was an uninteresting person and, partly for this reason, he never painted self-portraits. Klimt was therefore discreet and quiet all his life, but also much talked about: an aura of mystery surrounded his private life.
Fancy learning more about Klimt and his art?
Let’s go!
1 – The life of Gustav Klimt
Klimt’s life and origins are important for understanding the development of his art and his use of materials. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you too much with his story, but I do want to highlight a few details to help you understand this important artist better.
Gustav Klimt was born in Vienna on 14 July 1862, into a large family. The second of seven children (3 boys and 4 girls), he wasn’t the only one to take up art. His other two brothers also became painters, though with modest results. One of them, Ernst, often helped him with his works.
His father was a goldsmith, so it’s no coincidence that Klimt experimented with the use of gold leaf in his works.
He showed his inclination for art early on and, at just 14, won a scholarship to the Kunstgewerbeschule, Vienna’s school of applied arts. Just think that only a few years later, together with his brother Ernst, he received his first important commissions.
From the 1880s onwards he received various commissions and was very prolific, at least until 1892, when the death of his father and his brother Ernst marked him deeply, opening a period of crisis and of rethinking his style.
From his earliest works, the originality of his blend of arts and materials emerges: architecture, collage, mosaic, painting and drawing, which made him unique. His extensive use of gold is tied to his father’s craft and to the fascination the Byzantine mosaics held for him, which he was able to admire in Ravenna in 1903.
In 1897 he was among the founders of the Vienna Secession (Wiener Sezession), which opposed academic conventions, and he was its first president; his brilliant career made him one of the greatest exponents of Art Nouveau across Europe.
Despite this, from the early 1900s his works drew harsh criticism, so much so that it marked the end of Klimt’s “public” career.
Now I’ll explain why!
2 – Viennese Secessionism
As you’ll have gathered from his works, Klimt was an atypical artist, sharply at odds with the rigid conventions imposed by the Vienna academy. Perhaps for this reason he took part in the Vienna Secession movement, together with a group of artists whose goal was to take art beyond academic conventions.
His critique of classical painting is already evident from 1894, when the University of Vienna commissioned him to decorate the ceiling of its Great Hall. The theme was supposed to be the triumph of light over darkness, a clear reference to the Enlightenment and its values.
And what did Klimt make instead?
Imagine the astonishment of the committee when Klimt presented a series of twisting nude bodies, instead of classical, decidedly more sober themes.
However, one of the best testimonies of Klimt’s art can be found in the Beethoven Frieze, which the artist made for the fourteenth Vienna Secession exhibition. This work is a set of visionary, enigmatic images symbolising humanity’s journey against the temptations of the modern world.
In effect, these two “scandalous” works marked the end of Klimt’s “public” career.
3 – Gustav Klimt and women
The female universe was studied and explored by this artist perhaps more than by anyone else. As with Modigliani or Boldini, most of his works portray women: whether actual portraits, allegories, compositions, sketches or canvases.
Why?
Even though he never married, Klimt was always fascinated by sensuality and by the beauty of the fair sex. You should know that in the past it was fairly normal for some artists to not want to enter into marriage. For them this “contract” was nothing but a distraction, drawing them away from their art and from an inspiration that instead had to be free of constraints.
This is one of the most debated themes of Klimt’s biography.
From the chronicles of the time we know that he had several relationships: the first with Emilie Flöge, sister of his sister-in-law, who was one of his most important muses and who, according to many, is portrayed in “The Kiss”. Later he grew attached to Adele Bloch-Bauer, who lent her face to some of his works, including Judith I.
His studio, moreover, was always frequented by beautiful models, whom Klimt portrayed in his works and in countless sketches, though we can only speculate about the nature of their relationships.
Oh, and of course there were also wealthy high-society ladies. As with Modigliani, a great many women wished to be portrayed by Klimt.
He depicted women of every social class, always as fascinating, seductive figures full of mystery and voluptuousness. The soft forms of the female bodies are splendidly harmonised in his paintings. No matter how many lovers he had, his way of telling us about women remains magically poetic.
In short, Klimt’s freedom in art was reflected in his private life too, stubbornly detached from conventional relationships.
4 – Where to see Klimt’s works
Being an Austrian artist, many of his works are in the most important museums of Vienna. The famous Kiss by Klimt is at the Belvedere Museum. Here you’ll also find the portrait “Judith I” and other important works by the artist and beyond. Note that the museum isn’t reachable by metro line: you’ll need to take a tram, which takes you right up the hill.
I also recommend buying your ticket online to avoid queuing at the entrance and to have more time to enjoy the Austrian capital.
Also in Vienna is the Beethoven Frieze. This work is so large that it was deemed “non-transportable” by the Austrian state, and for this reason a copy was made to move around for exhibitions in other countries.
You’ll find the original inside the Secession Building in Vienna.
Are there works by Klimt in Italy too?
Absolutely yes!
The painting depicting the “Three Ages of Woman” is kept in Rome, inside the National Gallery of Modern Art. This is one of the artist’s most emblematic works, depicting all the phases of a woman’s life, from youth to old age, passing through motherhood.
In Venice, instead, you can find Judith II. The work was exhibited during the Biennale, and it was on that occasion that the city decided to buy it and add it to the collection of its Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro.
5 – An “atypical” artist
It may surprise you to learn that Gustav Klimt, a hugely famous artist who created monumental works full of gold and colour, was a very simple person.
Unlike many other artists of this historical period, he lived modestly, surrounded by his family and keeping good, healthy habits. He preferred solitude and didn’t like attending exhibitions and salons. He didn’t even like to travel, and suffered from a kind of hypochondria that made him worry a great deal about his health.
Every evening he dined with his siblings and then withdrew into his silence, going to bed early. He was a very shy, reserved person: he even wrote few letters.
He died in Vienna on 6 February 1918, struck by a stroke and then by the pneumonia linked to the Spanish flu epidemic, at the height of his fame and leaving several unfinished works in his studio.
The life of this shy, silent artist really helps us understand the opening quote of this post: Klimt said with his art everything he didn’t want to say in words. We can only be grateful for this legacy — his works are pure emotion.
And you, which work by Klimt makes your heart beat faster?
