The Kiss. Gustav Klimt · Public domain · source

Gustav Klimt

Public domain1862-1918·Austrian·painting·Wikipedia ↗

Who

Austrian painter, first president of the Vienna Secession (founded 1897). Known for the "golden phase" portraits and allegories built from gold leaf, pattern and flattened space.

Why they matter

Klimt fused Byzantine mosaic, Japanese print design and Symbolist subject matter into a decorative style that made pattern a subject in its own right. His landscapes, square and almost abstract, are the underrated half of the work.

What to buy

Prints: The Kiss is the one everyone wants and the gold does not photograph well, so look at the Belvedere's own reproductions first. Books: the Taschen monograph covers the paintings; the drawings, of which there are thousands, have their own catalogues. Originals: drawings do come to auction regularly but at prices in the tens of thousands and up; nothing on eBay sold as "original Klimt" is one.

Notes

The Belvedere in Vienna holds the largest group of Klimt paintings, including The Kiss.

Story

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I hung in the Belvedere for decades after being seized from the Bloch-Bauer family by the Nazis in 1938. Adele's niece, Maria Altmann, who had fled Vienna, sued the Austrian government in US courts; the case reached the Supreme Court in 2004, which ruled it could proceed, and an Austrian arbitration panel awarded the painting and four others to the heirs in 2006. Ronald Lauder bought the portrait that year for the Neue Galerie in New York for a reported 135 million dollars, then the highest price paid for a painting. It has not left the building since.

Key works

The Kiss (1907-1908) - Belvedere, Vienna
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) - Neue Galerie, New York
Judith I (1901) - Belvedere, Vienna
Beethoven Frieze (1902) - Secession Building, Vienna

Gustav Klimt

Who

Why they matter

What to buy

Notes

Story

Key works

In museum collections

See the work

Prints

Books

See also