Gustav Klimt. Patrick Bade

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      Conservative Viennese society was once again profoundly shocked by these images, much in the same way that modern-day exhibition-goers are shocked by a Damien Hirst. Klimt’s contemporary Felix Salten relates: “Suddenly an exclamation came from the centre of the room: ‘Hideous!’ An aristocrat, a patron and collector, whom the Secession had let in today together with other close friends, had lost his temper at the sight of the Klimt frescoes. He shouted the word in a high, shrill, sharp voice… he threw it up the walls like a stone.:’Hideous!’”

      Klimt’s only response to this, as he worked away on the scaffolding above, was an amused glance in the direction of the departed man. This calm response perhaps best typifies Klimt’s reaction to the scandals he caused.

      Although the faculty paintings ensured that Klimt swiftly lost the patronage of the Emperor and other establishment figures, he was fortunate enough to be able to earn an extremely comfortable living from painting portraits and thus did not have to worry about this loss. Three times, however, he was refused a professorship of the Academy. Only in 1917 was he offered the small consolation of being made an honorary member.

      Fin de Siècle Vienna

      It must be remembered that despite their tastes for balls, the opera, theatre and music, the Viennese upper classes were extremely conservative in their tastes. A combination of strict Roman Catholicism and rigid social morals kept them buttoned up, at least on the surface. And whilst people were only too happy to indulge in all sorts of sensual pleasures that were sanctioned by society – the waltz, for example – they did not appreciate having openly erotic, ugly or sexual subjects thrust before them, a double standard which speaks volumes about fin de siècle morality.

      The Vienna into which Klimt was born was a city perched uncomfortably on the cusp of two eras. Then, it was still the capital of a far-reaching empire of over fifty million inhabitants, ruled by the Emperor Franz Joseph.

      However, by the time of Klimt’s death in 1918, the Habsburg Empire itself had only seven months left to live. Austria then became a tiny nation state of seven million inhabitants, three million of whom were concentrated around Vienna. Twenty years later it was absorbed by Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler, himself, ironically, born on Austrian soil.

      The period of decline had begun even before Klimt was born. Military defeats across the Empire sounded warning bells for future stability, whilst Vienna was filling up with Czechs, gypsies, Hungarians, Poles, Jews, and Romanians – immigrants from the poorest parts of the Empire, all in search of work, often living in appalling conditions. The wealthy Viennese, however, chose not to acknowledge these signals of future trouble but rather to ignore the outside world and immerse themselves in a whirl of pleasurable activities.

      This was a period of great musicians – Brahms, Bruckner, Strauss the younger, Schönberg, Mahler and, of course, Franz Lehár, creator of the light operettas so beloved of the Viennese. It was also the era of Sigmund Freud, Alfred Adler, Arthur Schnitzler, and amidst all this, Klimt.

      Lovers and Friends

      One of the most tantalising facts about a man so well-known in times comparatively recent to our own is that almost nothing concrete is known about Klimt’s personal life, a fact largely due to his own reticence on the subject. Whilst the facts of his artistic career are well-charted, knowledge of his private life depends entirely on hearsay.

      Jurisprudence, 1907.

      Oil on canvas, 430 × 300 cm.

      Burnt in 1945 at Immendorf Castle.

      Music, 1901.

      Lithograph.

      Marie Moll, 1902–1903.

      Pencil, 45.2 × 31.4 cm.

      Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

      Fairy Tale, 1884.

      Black pencil and ink wash, 63.9 × 34.3 cm.

      Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

      Final Drawing for the Allegory of Sculpture, 1902–1903.

      Black pencil, graphite pencil lead, wash and gold, 41.8 × 32.3 cm.

      Historisches Museum, Vienna.

      Flowing Water, 1898.

      Oil on canvas, 52 × 65 cm.

      Private collection.

      Death’s Procession, 1903.

      Burnt in 1945 at Immendorf Castle.

      On the one hand, he is depicted as a ladies’ man, built like a peasant, strong as an ox, sleeping with countless women, including all of his models. On the other hand, he is seen as a hypochondriac and a confirmed bachelor with a balanced lifestyle, living with his mother and sisters while keeping a studio in the suburbs to which he went to work regularly every day:

      Klimt’s daily routines were very bourgeois. He was so engrossed in them that any divergence from his normal course was a horror to him; going anywhere was a major event, and a big trip was only conceivable if his friends did all the shopping for him beforehand, down to the smallest detail.

(Hans Tietze, Gustav Klimts Persönlichkeit nach Mitteilungen seiner Freunde [Gustav Klimt’s Personality According to Messages from His Friends], 1919).

      Klimt never married, but had a long relationship with Emilie Flöge, the sister of his brother Ernst’s wife. In 1891, Ernst had married Helene Flöge, one of two sisters who ran a fashion house in Vienna. The marriage only lasted fifteen months, but through Helene, Gustav met Emilie. From around 1897 onwards, he spent almost every summer on the Attersee with the Flöge family, periods of peace and tranquillity, СКАЧАТЬ