2/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/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