Klimt, Gustav Biography

Was the principal Austrian Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) painter, and one of the founders of the ViennaSezession (1898), although he resigned in 1903. He was essentially a decorator and, from 1883 to 1892, he shared a studio for decorative painting with his brother and another artist: they worked in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, in 1891. From 1898, after a barren period of about six years, he was influenced by Japanese art and by contemporary English painters like Burne-Jones and Alma-Tadema. A more realist style characterized his ceilings for Vienna University (1900-1903), which were very unpopular. Gustav Klimt was perhaps most successful as a designer for the applied arts (e.g. mosaic), but he was also a great influence on Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.

Gustav Klimt’s famous oil paintings include:

• The Kiss
• Portrait of Emile Floge
• Avenue in the Park of Schloss Kammer
• Portrait of Mada Primavesi
• Death and Life
• Church at Cassone
• Portrait of Baroness Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt
• The Dancer
• Fulfilment
• Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
• The Girlfriends
• The Maiden
• Goldfish
• Farm Garden with Sunflowers
• Danae
• Beech Forest I
• Idyll

View Klimt, Gustav paintings here.