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GUSTAV KLIMT

Klimt was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, near Vienna. At the age of 14 he entered in the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. In 1879 Gustav and his brother Ernest formed an artistic association, that obtained important commissions for some decorative frescoes. The two brothers opened in 1883 a studio in Vienna with the name of Künstlerkompanie, which in 1886 obtained the prestigious commission for the decoration of the ceiling of the Austrian national theater. The 1892 was a year of mourning for Gustave Klimt: both his father and his brother Ernest died. In 1897 Klimt began to paint landscapes only during the holidays. With a burst of rebellion against the official canons and the generational revolt that intended to free art from tribute to conventions, Klimt founded the Viennese Secession movement in 1897.

The famous painting "Jiudith I" of the 1901 marks the beginning of the "golden age" of the painter. Klimt's women are ethereal, sweet and romantic, but at the same time endowed with sensual malice, that transpires to the point that contemporaries considered the nudes of her paintings excessive and scandalous. . The theme of the "Femme Fatale" emerges also in another work: Judith II (1909).

In 1902 Klimt made the large decorative frieze for the Hall that housed the Beethoven monument. In 1900 Klimt was commissioned to make a series of paintings for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna, having as its theme philosophy, medicine and jurisprudence.

Klimt made two trip in 1903 to Italy (Venice, Ravenna and Florence), where he was very impressed by the Byzantine mosaics for their splendor, and preciousness. The most famous paint of Klimt is in 1907. The Kiss of The man and the woman, who tenderly join in a very sweet embrace for an undetermined time, are in two opposing universes, that are united by love. This work represents harmony with the canons of the Liberty style.