Portrait of Gustav Klimt Photo sourced from Wikimedia

These are the 10 Best Paintings by Gustav Klimt


 

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Secession) movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects, many of which are on display in the Vienna Secession gallery.

Klimt’s primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Some of the paintings have gone on to be sold for a huge price. Let’s take a look at some of his best painting, which makes him one of the most renowned painters in the world;

1. The Kiss

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Known as Klimt’s most popular work and most important masterpiece, the Kiss is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was painted at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his “Golden Period”.

The painting depicts a couple embracing each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate beautiful robes decorated in a style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The painting is currently located in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere, Vienna. 

Read more about this painting here

2. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Adele Bloch-Bauer I Photo sourced from Wikimedia

The portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (also called The Lady in Gold or The Woman in Gold) is a painting by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter’s husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Jewish banker and sugar producer. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.

The portrait is the final and most fully representative work of Klimt’s golden phase. When it was returned to the family after a lawsuit, it was later sold for a record fee for a painting $135 million in 2006 to businessman and art collector Ronald Lauder, who placed the work in the Neue Galerie, the New York-based gallery he co-founded and where it found to date.

Read more about this painting in 30 Most Famous Paintings you have to know about

3. Judith and the Head of Holofernes

Judith and the Head of Holofernes (also known as Judith I) is an oil painting by Gustav Klimt, painted in 1901. It depicts the biblical figure Judith holding the head of Holofernes after beheading him. The beheading and its aftermath have been commonly portrayed in art since the Renaissance. 

 Klimt himself also painted a second work depicting the subject in 1909. Despite some slight changes to her features, the model for Judith was Klimt’s longtime friend and lover Adele Bloch-Bauer—which may help account for the boldly erotic overtones of the piece. It is one of the painter’s most popular masterpieces. 

4. The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze

The tree of life Photo sourced from Wikimedia

The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze, is a painting by the Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was completed in 1909 and is based on the Art Nouveau (Modern) style in a symbolic painting genre. The dimensions of the painting are 195 by 102 centimetres (77 by 40 in), and it is housed at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria. 

The painting is a study for a series of three mosaics created by Klimt for a 1905-1911 commissioned work at the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, Belgium. The mosaics were created in the artist’s Late Works period and depict swirling Trees of Life, a standing female figure, and an embracing couple. The mosaics are spread across three walls of the Palais’ dining room, along with two figural sections set opposite each other.

5. The Sunflower 

The sunflower is a 1913 painting by Gustavus Klimt, which is characterized by cheerfulness. Klimt makes radical use of the diagonal to connect the foreground and background. The Sunflower by Klimt resembles those of Vincent van Gogh, which Klimt repeatedly studied over the years to perfections

The foreground is given prominence and seen as particularly meaningful. Its materiality emphasized and depicted precisely in luminous colours. The flowers are integrated in a well-considered manner, in the ingenious relationship of their refined colouration.

6. Death and Life

Photo of Death and Life Photo sourced from Wikimedia

Another important masterpiece by Gustav Klimt is the Death and Life painting. It is an oil on canvas painting that was started in 1908 and completed in 1915. It is created in an Art Nouveau (Modern) style by use of allegorical painting genre during Golden phase. The painting measures 178 by 198 centimetres and is now housed at the Leopold Museum in Vienna. 

The painting received first prize in the world exhibitions in Rome and in the process earned worldwide recognition in 1911. However, after the first five exhibitions of the painting, Klimt changed the background from gold-colored to grey and added some mosaics in 1915.

7. Goldfish

Goldfish is a Symbolist and Art Nouveau oil on canvas and gold leaf painting created by Gustav Klimt from 1901 to 1902 and currently located at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn in Switzerland. The painting features two nude women submerged within water alongside a goldfish.

Their red hair intertwines with seaweed, which Klimt covered in gold leaf. A single breast of the female at the top of the painting and the curves of the other women creates a sexual allure resembling mermaids. This is one of Klimt’s most popular paintings, which he made during his golden phase. 

8. Portrait of Hermine Gallia

Portrait of Hermine Gallia’ is an oil on canvas painting by Austrian painter Gustav decipiting Hermine Gallia as the sitter. It was also her husband who commissioned the painting. The sinuous lines of her translucent chiffon dress recall Art Nouveau and Japanese prints. The geometric pattern on the lower half of her dress and the carpet hint at the Byzantine style Klimt.

It is the only painting by Klimt in a British public collection, and it’s a fine example of the portraits of society women he painted in the early years of the twentieth century. Wearing a shimmering dress made of translucent white chiffon, Hermine Gallia appears almost to float before is..  The geometrical pattern of its lower half, and the mosaic-like design of the carpet, hint at the ‘Byzantine’ style

9.Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II is an oil on canvas painting by Austrian painter Gustavus Klimt, and the second he painted of Adele Bloch -Bauer. She is therefore the only person whose portrait Klimt painted twice. He created a second portrait of her. This fact reflected her status as a member of Vienna’s elite as well as her role as Ferdinand’s co-arts patron.

Adele Bloch-Bauer II is a more straightforward, vibrant oil painting on canvas than Klimt’s earlier rendition of her likeness, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, which is the pinnacle of his luxurious Gold Period style.The painting is one of the most expensive paintings in history after it was bought for $150 million. 

Read more about this painting here

10.The Maiden

The Maiden, also know as the Virgin, is a oil on canvas painting by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt painted in year 1913 and currently located in the National Gallery in Prague, Czech Republic. The profusion of flowers in the picture represents the development of womanhood.

Seven women are shown intertwined in the picture. Every lady embodies a specific stage of life. The cyclical-shaped depictions of love, sexuality, and rebirth in the painting touch on a number of different aspects of human life. Its one of Klimt’s most popular paintings.