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Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918)
Gustav Klimt was an influential Austrian painter of the late 19th Century, one of the founders and leaders of the Vienna Secession art movement, although he would later move beyond it.
Klimt was born in Vienna, in 1862, into a lower middle-class family of Moravian origin. His father, Ernst Klimt, worked as an engraver and goldsmith, earning very little, and the artist's childhood was spent in relative poverty. The painter would have to support his family financially throughout his life.
Together with his two brothers, Gustav was sent to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, in order to follow in his father's footsteps as an engraver and craftsman. The School of Arts and Crafts had been founded as the lower-class version of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. However, the education it gave its students was excellent, covering both the technical and historical aspects of art. Additionally, exceptional students were given the chance to attend classes at the Academy itself.
Klimt soon demonstrated his talent and would be commissioned to paint several large decorative works by the age of twenty. Together with his younger brother Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch, who would also become a notable painter of the period, Gustav worked on designs for the 1879 Festzug -- a procession intended to celebrate the 25th wedding anniversary of Emperor Franz Josef and the Empress Elizabeth. The director of the project was Hans Makart, the leading Austrian painter of the day.
While Hans Makart was a classicist, his use of bright, vivid colors and the widespread use of symbolic objects in his paintings would set the trends for the entire period, and would have a profound influence on Viennese Art Noveau and the Secession movement.
After finishing his studies, Klimt opened a studio together with Matsch and Ernst Klimt. The trio specialized in interior decoration, particularly theaters. Already by the 1880s, they were renowned for their skill and decorated theaters throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and much of their work can still be seen there. In 1885, they were commissioned to decorate the Empress Elizabeth's country retreat, the Villa Hermes near Vienna (Midsummer Night's Dream). In 1886, the painters were asked to decorate the Viennese Burgtheater, effectively recognizing them as the foremost of decorators of Austria. Works that Klimt painted for this project include the Cart of Thespis, the Altars of Dionysosand Apollo and the Theater at Taormina, as well as scenes from the Shakespearean Globe Theater.
At the completion of the work in 1888, the painters were awarded the Golden Service Cross (Verdienstkreuz), and Klimt was commissioned to paint the Auditorium of the Old Burgtheater, the work that would bring him to the height of his fame. This painting, .... |
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