/internal/media/dispatcher/109704/fullMother with Two Children (Family)1909/1910[Gustav Klimt, Gustav Klimt, Helene Mayer, Richard Parzer, Österreichische Galerie]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