Klimt biography short
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His childhood was spent in poverty, but his artistic talent was evident from an early age.
In 1876, at the age of 14, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied architectural painting until 1883. Flöge was the model for many of his works and the subject of numerous photographs by Klimt.
Vienna Secession
In 1897, Klimt and a group of like-minded artists founded the Vienna Secession, a movement that rejected the conservative policies of the Viennese Künstlerhaus.
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1877 was also the year when the Historicist Villa Paulick in Seewalchen on the Attersee was completed. Around the same time, the German-American photographer Pauline Hamilton (1870-1918, née Kruger) also captured Gustav Klimt in photographs.
Bildcredit
- Gustav Klimt: Stoclet frieze "Rose bush" (work drawing), 1910/11, MAK - Museum of Applied Arts
© MAKZum Werkverzeichnis - Moriz Nähr: Anteroom of Gustav Klimt's studio in Josefstädter Straße, May 1911, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Bildarchiv und Grafiksammlung
© Picture Archives and Graphics Department, Austrian National LibraryZum Werkverzeichnis - Moriz Nähr: Gustav Klimt with a cat in front of his studio in Josefstädter Straße, May 1911, Klimt Foundation
© Klimt Foundation, ViennaZum Werkverzeichnis - Pauline Hamilton: Gustav Klimt in a painter's smock, presumably circa 1911, Klimt Foundation
© Klimt Foundation, ViennaZum Werkverzeichnis
1912
Gustav Klimt Biography In Details
Early life & education
Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, near Vienna, the second of seven children — three boys and four girls.
What is more, the Bavarian government purchased Klimt’s Music(Study) for the Neue Pinakothek. During his summer retreat, Klimt worked on the transfer sketches for his monumental work The Beethoven Frieze, which was to be presented at the Vienna Secession the coming year.
Bildcredit
- Gustav Klimt: Music (Study), 1895, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Neue Pinakothek München
© bpk | Bavarian State Painting CollectionsZum Werkverzeichnis - Gustav Klimt: Pine Forest I, 1901, Kunsthaus Zug
© Kunsthaus Zug, Stiftung Sammlung Kamm Zum Werkverzeichnis
1902
The thirty-four-meter-long Beethoven Frieze was presented on the occasion of the Vienna Secession’s 14th exhibition, the so-called “Beethoven Exhibition.” Klimt began painting the iconic portrait of Emilie Flöge, his soulmate.
Otto, the second son of Klimt and Maria “Mizzi” Zimmermann, was born, but died that same year.
In a rare writing called "Commentary on a non-existent self-portrait", he states "I have never painted a self-portrait. The cover of the May/June issue of Ver Sacrum likewise showed this motif by Klimt. New Series”]. All three paintings were destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945. That year, Klimt is known to have traveled to Italy for the first time, a journey he undertook in the company of his brother Ernst and which took them to Trieste and Venice [or “Wehnedig,” Klimt’s spelling for the German name “Venedig”] via Villach.
That year, the families Klimt and Flöge met for the first time.
Bildcredit
- Gustav Klimt: Greek Antiquity (Athena), 1890/91, Kunsthistorisches Museum
© KHM-MuseumsverbandZum Werkverzeichnis - Gustav Klimt: Letter from Gustav Klimt in Venice to Anna and Ernest Klimt sen.
As a result, they were not displayed on the ceiling of the Great Hall.
Klimt's unique style, characterized by the use of gold, colored decoration, and often erotic elements, set him apart as a pioneering artist. Not completed until the turn of the century, his three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were criticized for their radical themes and material, which was called "pornographic".
Klimt painted Judith I.
As usual, Klimt spent the summer at the Attersee. Ernst would follow in the subsequent year.
In May, Moriz Nähr still documented the situation in situ, taking the famous portrait photograph of Klimt with a cat in his arms. All three of the Faculty Paintings were shown together for the first time in their current, not yet completed states. The show also presented such international positions as those of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890), Paul Gauguin (1848–1903), Edvard Munch (1863–1944), and Max Liebermann (1847–1935).
Klimt undertook a trip to France together with Moll, which they combined with a stay of several days in Central Spain.
Klimt had transformed traditional allegory and symbolism into a new language which was more overtly sexual, and hence more disturbing. Klimt began his correspondence with Maria “Mizzi” Zimmermann (1879–1975), his model and mother of two of his future children.
Bildcredit
- Künstlerhaus during the IXth major annual exhibition, December 1880, in: Allgemeine Bauzeitung, 1881.
© ANNO | Austrian National Library - Alfred Roller: Letter from Alfred Roller to Gustav Klimt with a design sketch for the building of Gustav Klimt's Vienna Association , 05/04/1897, Klimt Foundation
© Klimt Foundation, ViennaZum Werkverzeichnis - Gustav Klimt: Pneumatic post letter card from Gustav Klimt in Vienna to Maria Zimmermann in Vienna, 11/18/1897, Klimt Foundation
© Klimt Foundation, ViennaZum Werkverzeichnis - Gustav Klimt: Lady with Cape and Hat against a Red Background, 1897/98, Klimt Foundation
© Klimt Foundation, ViennaZum Werkverzeichnis
1898
The first exhibition of the Vienna Secession took place in the flower halls of the Imperial-Royal Horticultural Society on Parkring (Vienna’s First District, Inner City).
In 1915 his mother Anna died. The starkly naked red-headed woman holds the mirror of truth, while above it is a quote by Schiller in stylized lettering, "If you cannot please everyone with your deeds and your art, please a few. A blossoming liaison between Klimt and Alma Schindler (1879–1964), Moll’s stepdaughter, was discovered during this trip and put a stop to.
Klimt’s earliest known letter to Maria Ucicka was sent on 12 June.