17/internal/media/dispatcher/5283/fullWoman in White1917/1918[Gustav Klimt, Broncia Koller-Pinell]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas (unfinished) Lady in White is one of the unfinished paintings found in Gustav Klimt’s studio after his death. It is a good example of the painter’s approach in his late period: Klimt positioned his unknown model within the square canvas so as to form a diagonal that divides the picture space. This creates three sections in the composition, with the figure at the center, a light background on the left, and a dark surface opposite. While the visible brushwork is typical of Klimt’s late paintings, the pronounced flatness of the image is a characteristic of Viennese Jugendstil. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3080/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/128260/fullJohanna Staude1917/1918[Gustav Klimt, Johanna Staude]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Johanna Staude gazes back at us with shining blue eyes. Gustav Klimt shows the young woman against an orange-red background with a fashionable hairstyle and wearing a dress with a striking pattern. It is named after a Wiener Werkstätte fabric called „Blätter“ (Leaves) and was designed by Martha Albers, a graduate from the Vienna School of Applied Arts. Wrapped around the sitter’s throat is a feather boa that draws our attention to her face. This serene and simple composition was one of Klimt’s last female portraits. The painter was a friend of Johanna Staude and she probably modeled for him on repeated occasions. Address directories document that she was also a language teacher and artist.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/4302/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/160537/fullAdam and Eve1916 - 1918[Gustav Klimt, Sonja Knips, Galerie Gustav Nebehay]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas (unfinished) Klimt rarely engaged with biblical subjects during his career. One of his last works, unfinished at his death, shows the first humans, Adam and Eve. He was not interested in the more traditional depiction of the Fall, however, instead focusing on the figure of Eve as the quintessential female. Adam has closed his eyes, intoxicated with love, as he tilts his head and nestles tenderly against Eve. But Eve is looking straight at us. The anemones on the ground are emblems of fertility; the leopard skin, meanwhile, was a symbol in ancient Greece of unbridled desire. In Klimt’s interpretation, then, it is Eve—and not the snake—who is the temptress.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3196/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/97122/fullAvenue to Schloss Kammer1912[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas “I am longing to get away more than ever,” wrote Gustav Klimt at the beginning of August 1901 — away from the hot city for a sojourn by the lakes and mountains of Austria’s Salzkammergut. From 1900 to 1916 the artist spent several weeks each summer at the Attersee lake. This beautiful region inspired him and he painted intensively. Klimt depicted Schloss Kammer in a total of five paintings. At the end of an avenue of gnarled trees, the entrance and part of the yellow façade can be seen in the pictorial depths. Vibrant dabs of paint and bold contours reflect Klimt’s engagement with the international avant-garde, for example the work of Vincent van Gogh or Paul Cézanne that he had the chance to study at exhibitions in Vienna.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/8691/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/70875/fullUpper Austrian Farmhouse1911[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvasIt is as though we are standing beneath the apple tree ourselves, with the dense treetops towering over the view of the old farmhouse in the background. Gustav Klimt painted this picture during his summer retreat at the Attersee in 1911. Using a pointillist technique, he dissolved nature into numerous brushstrokes, while the house itself is rendered with clearly defined surfaces and contours. This gives the impression of a two-dimensional surface pattern, despite the spatial distance between the individual motifs. The blossoming and fertility of nature that so delighted Klimt, evident in the orchards and flower meadows of most of his landscapes, takes on the character of a natural symbolism that celebrates life in its prime.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/380/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/70896/fullSchloss Kammer on Lake Attersee III1911/1912[Gustav Klimt, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, Erich Führer, Ingeborg Anna Ucicky, Gustav Ucicky, Ferdinand und Adele Bloch-Bauer]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas “Arrived safely, forgot my opera glasses—need them badly,” Klimt reported to his sister Hermine in 1915 from his vacation home on Lake Attersee. The artist’s need during his summer vacation for optical aids—a telescope as well as opera glasses—becomes apparent from this painting: the lakeside facade of Schloss Kammer. Klimt probably captured it on canvas from the opposite shore using a telescope. The zoom effect causes the trees, the low front wing, and the red roof of the main building behind to appear as if on a single plane. With its softly out-of-focus reflections, the lake portion also appears to be part of the resulting two-dimensional image.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3112/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/109704/fullMother with Two Children (Family)1909/1910[Gustav Klimt, Gustav Klimt, Helene Mayer, Richard Parzer]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Exhausted, the young mother has drifted off to sleep, cradling her two small children in her arms. The family is wrapped in a pile of dark blankets that keep them warm and seem to merge with the undefined space around them. Only their sleeping faces seem to shine through the darkness. Are the three sitting in a dark room, or outside, or even on the street? Gustav Klimt’s contemporaries recognized the subjects as a family living on the fringes of society. The choice of subject is unusual in Klimt’s oeuvre, as he never addressed poverty in any other painting. Nevertheless, the timeless theme of the painting seems to be one of tender maternal love.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/27315/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/140353/fullThe Kiss (Lovers)1908 (finished 1909)[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtFigures: gold leaf, silver leaf, platinum leaf, resin oil colors on primed canvas (zinc paint). – Background: Composition gold (brass), glazed, flakes of metal leaf “The Kiss”, probably Klimt’s most famous work, was painted at the height of his Golden Period without a direct commission. It shows a couple, melting into one, at the edge of a meadow of flowers. Only the different patterning of the robes distinguishes their bodies that are enveloped in a shimmering golden halo. Klimt actually used real gold leaf, silver, and platinum in his picture. He presumably started work on it in 1907 and exhibited the painting at the Kunstschau in June the following year under the title “Lovers”. From this show, the Ministry of Art purchased it for the Modern Gallery—now the Belvedere—for a price that was high even then. In autumn 1909, a catalogue of this museum cited the work for the first time as “The Kiss”, the title by which it is world famous today.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/6678/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/115111/fullFlowering Poppies1907[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvasThis painting resembles a floral tapestry, a shimmering fabric of vibrant dabs, the red of the poppies standing out as the dominant color. There is no hint of sunlight nor shadow to be seen, only the occasional outlined tree, and a gray strip of sky above the high horizon. Klimt was inspired to paint works such as this by the luminous vibrancy of French Impressionism. But his poppy field does not convey a fleeting visual experience—far from it! Rather it exudes nature’s harmony and eternal validity. Klimt painted this work in the countryside surrounding the lake Attersee in Upper Austria, where he spent his summers after 1900.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3917/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/114741/fullSunflower1907/1908[Gustav Klimt, Gustav Klimt, Richard Parzer]Gustav KlimtOil and gold leaf on canvas Gustav Klimt shows a single, majestic sunflower in the middle of this square composition that is entirely covered by a green hedge resembling a patterned tapestry. The head of the sunflower inclines slightly, while its leaves seem to protectively curl over the dense array of bright summer flowers at its base. Time and again Klimt’s sunflower has been seen to have human characteristics, its form reminiscent of the medieval Virgin of Mercy sheltering figures under her cloak. The famous art critic from the Vienna Secession Ludwig Hevesi described it as a “fairy in love.” Others have even seen the sunflower as a hidden portrait of the designer Emilie Flöge.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/21865/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/118781/fullFritza Riedler1906[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Dignified, reserved, and majestic, Fritza Riedler (1860–1927), the wife of a wealthy mechanical engineer, sits in a chair as if enthroned. The delicate features of her pale face stand in striking contrast to her dark hair. There is not a flicker of expression on her face, not the slightest stirring to provide a glimpse of the sitter’s inner self. Gustav Klimt combines the naturalistic depiction of his model with a background dissolved into ornamentation. Even the chair is transformed into an ornament composed of wavy lines and ancient Egyptian eye motifs. This interplay between depth and an emphasis on the picture plane characterizes Klimt’s work from his so-called Golden Period. Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2177/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/114740/fullCottage Garden with Sunflowers1906[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Sunflowers and dahlias, marigolds, asters, and flame flowers. In this work, Klimt more than lives up to his reputation as the “artist of eternal flowering.” Against a backdrop of verdant green, he has filled the picture plane with a vibrant sea of flowers. This abundant, vivid array stirs memories of a radiant summer day. It transports us to a dream world beyond space and time, where flowers and leaves never wilt. One typical characteristic of Klimt’s landscape paintings is their square format. In order to find the perfect section of a scene, the painter used a viewfinder. “This is a hole cut into a piece of cardboard,” he explained in a letter to his lover Mizzi Zimmermann.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/2483/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/36554/fullGirlfriends (Water Serpents I)1904 (minor amendments in 1907)[Gustav Klimt, Gustav Klimt, Unbekannter Besitz]Gustav Klimt Watercolour, gouache, pencil, gold, silver, platinum and brass on parchment Klimt’s aquatic beings, described by the artist as “water serpents” or “water nymphs,” seem bewitchingly detached from the real world. In dreamy, flowing movements they float above the ocean floor in the midst of golden seaweed. A glimmering fish stares out at us with a fixed gaze from the lower right of the picture. Influenced by the Symbolist art movement, the artist used these aquatic creatures to symbolize a mystical realm. Klimt created this work on parchment at the height of his Golden Period.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3828/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/83180/fullJudith1901[Gustav Klimt, Berthe Hodler, Anton Loew, Sophie Loew-Unger]Gustav KlimtOil and gold leaf on canvas The biblical story of the brave Judith has often been depicted in art. Judith, a chaste widow, gets the enemy commander Holofernes drunk with divine help, and then beheads him to free her people. Gustav Klimt interprets the Old Testament heroine as an erotic femme fatale. She gazes seductively at the viewer through half-closed eyes, her lips slightly parted. Only on closer inspection do we see the decapitated head of Holofernes. Judith holds it almost tenderly, as if to push it out of the picture. In Klimt’s painting there is no room for the male aggressor. He has transformed the biblical story of resistance in a political conflict into a battle of the sexes, and Judith’s triumph into a dangerously tantalizing icon of femininity.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3492/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/118782/fullSonja Knips1897/1898[Gustav Klimt, Sonja Knips]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Calm and confident, Sonja Knips gazes back at us. A baroness by birth, she was one of Gustav Klimt’s most prominent patrons. The artist subtly composed her portrait with great sensitivity, alternating between hazy evocation and precision: Sonja Knips’s face is rendered naturalistically, while her sumptuous tulle gown dissolves in a cascade of soft brushstrokes. Leaning slightly forward, she sits on the edge of an armchair ready to rise at any moment. A red sketchbook in her right hand adds an accent of bright color. This is the first portrait that Klimt painted in a square format. It also marks the start of his rise to become one of the most sought-after portraitists of Viennese society.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/3197/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/4046/fullLady at the Fireplace1897/1898[Gustav Klimt, Editha und Hermann Bauch, Friedrich Stadler-Wolffersgrün, Unbekannter Besitz, Friedrich Viktor Stadler-Wolffersgrün]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas The fashionable young woman sitting by the fireplace is depicted by Gustav Klimt as lost in thought. The dim lighting blurs her silhouette, while the warm glow of the fire is only vaguely discernible. The sitter exudes cosmopolitan sophistication, and her dreamy demeanor is consistent with the melancholy portrayal of women prevalent at the time in literature. The circumstances surrounding the painting’s creation remain unknown. However, anonymous portraits of women were a common theme in Klimt’s work. In this work, rather than characterizing a specific individual, the artist sought to capture a particular perspective on life.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/4185/rdf/internal/media/dispatcher/148283/fullJosef Lewinsky as Carlos in Clavigo1895[Gustav Klimt]Gustav KlimtOil on canvas Klimt depicts the court actor Josef Lewinsky as Carlos in Goethe’s tragedy, performing on stage. The surrounding scene is shrouded in darkness, revealing only the actor’s pale face, collar, and cuffs. An antique tripod frames the scene on the right, emitting smoke from which a laughing woman holding a mask emerges. Hovering above her is Dionysus, the god of wine, to whom the world’s first theater was dedicated. Klimt’s painting was commissioned by the Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst (Society for Reproducing Art) to illustrate the book Das k. k. Hofburgtheater seit seiner Begründung (The Imperial and Royal Hofburg Theater since Its Foundation), which documented the history of Viennese theater. The painter thus placed the Hofburgtheater in the tradition of the ancient Greek theater.Paintinghttps://sammlungtest.belvedere.at/objects/6234/rdf