ABOUT GUSTAV KLIMT
1. He was the founding president of the Vienna Secession.
In 1897, Klimt and a group of twenty other painters, sculptors and architects renounced the conservative Künstlerhaus to form their own artistic group. Klimt was chosen as its president and was active in organizing exhibitions until he left the group in 1905. Known as the Wiener Sezession (Vienna Secession), the movement rejected the Vienna art establishment’s insular historicism and marked the beginning of modern art in Austria. While the Secession is not associated with a particular artistic style, its members were united in their rebellion against the academic tradition and their embrace of the international avant garde.
2. Women were his favorite subjects…
Klimt noted: “I am less interested in myself as a subject for painting than I am in other people, above all women.” Known for his enigmatic femme fatales, Klimt’s portrayals of women are marked by their erotic power. His Judith I (1901) famously upends the conventional narrative of the Biblical heroine as a virtuous instrument of God, instead portraying an unabashedly sensual woman exalting in her domination over man. In addition to the portraits and allegorical depictions for which he is best known, Klimt produced an astounding number of erotic drawings in his later years, many of them explicitly sexual.
3. …And he was a notorious womanizer.
Although he never married, Klimt had a great many lovers and is said to have fathered 14 children. He took pains to keep his affairs discreet and avoid personal scandal; as a result, the extent of his relationships with his female sitters, many of them wealthy society women, has been the subject of much speculation amongst historians. However, it is widely accepted that his studio, where he often painted in a billowing caftan with nothing underneath, served as the site for numerous liaisons.
4. However, Klimt’s relationship with his muse and longtime companion, Emilie Louise Flöge, was probably chaste.
Flöge, whose sister Helene married Klimt’s brother Ernst in 1891, became his favorite model and lifelong companion. A successful fashion designer, Flöge’s love for costume and ornamentation matched his own, with Flöge creating and modeling Klimt’s designs in numerous photographs and paintings. One of Klimt’s most iconic works, The Kiss, is said to depict Flöge and Klimt as lovers. Many believe, however, that the relationship was not consummated. Instead, the nearly 400 surviving items of correspondence sent from Klimt to Flöge attest to an emotionally and intellectually intimate friendship. Klimt’s last words were reportedly, “Get Emilie.” Upon his death, he willed half of his estate to Flöge, with the other half going to his family.
Learn more about Gustav Klimt by visiting https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/21-facts-gustav-klimt
QUOTE BY GUSTAV KLIMT
Today I want to start working again in earnest I'm looking forward to it because doing nothing does become rather boring after a while. ”
- Gustav Klimt
WHAT I WISH FOR YOU TODAY
I wish you the passion to work in earnest; that doing NOTHING is erased from your life journey.