wien museum
klimt
The collection of the wien museum
Contents
Foreword So Near, So Far Wolfgang Kos
Catalogue Raisonné of the Work of Gustav Klimt in the Wien Museum 6
Texts The Klimt Collection of the Wien Museum Facts and Conclusions Ursula Storch Highlights and Rarities The Klimt Drawings of the Wien Museum Marian Bisanz-Prakken Sodom and Gomorrah Updated Gustav Klimt’s Image of Woman and of the Foreign Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer To Each Age, a Klimt of Its Own Gustav Klimt between Politics and Society Sophie Lillie
12
22
1 The School of Applied Arts 1877–1881
65
2 Allegories 1882–1897
71
3 Commissions 1883–1898
91
4 Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater 1888–89
A Portrait of the Late Nineteenth Century Gustav Klimt’s Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater Georg Gaugusch, Sophie Lillie
5 Secession 1897–1903
109
112 133
6 The University Paintings 1894/95–1903 155 30
7 Figure Studies 1898–1917/18
179
8 Portraits 1883–1917/18 199 40
Gustav Klimt’s Practice of Intervisuality “Klimtifying” in the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte William M. Johnston
48
Klimt for Everyone Observations on a Jubilee Year Kerstin Krenn
54
9 Nudes 1897–1917 229 10 The Kiss / Stoclet Frieze 1904–1908
267
Additional Items in the Klimt Collection of the Wien Museum Photographs / Memorabilia / Souvenirs 277
Appendix Selected Bibliography Selected Exhibitions Authors Acknowledgments / Image Credits
296 298 300 301
So Near, So Far
Foreword Gustav Klimt is said to be “a minor master
emphasizes the innovative and progressive
from Vienna.” The source of this verdict is an
elements of his art.
English art critic, who delivered it a number of
What does it mean when an epochal artist, one
years ago when Tate Liverpool mounted the first
regarded as pivotal and timeless, overshadows all
major British Klimt exhibition—after decades
of subsequent Austrian art for an entire century,
of enthusiastically received celebrations of
even becoming synonymous with Vienna as a city
Klimt in major museums throughout the West
of culture? In 2004, with the exhibition Alt Wien—
and the Far East. Our initial reaction might
Die Stadt, die niemals war (Old Vienna: The City
be: Is it permissible to write that? Wasn’t the
That Never Was), the Wien Museum took up the
Austrian cultural attaché obliged to register his
theme of Vienna’s reflexivity and its antimodernist
aggrievement at this level of ignorance in relation
yearning for the past. One small chapter was
to “our” world record holder?
devoted to “Vienna 1900,” yet another instance
This provocative rejection—amounting virtually
of the “nostalgia for old Vienna” which has long
to an act of lèse-majesté—of the universal
since abandoned the Biedermeier era as its
validity of an artist who has long occupied an
overarching narrative focus. The wall text read:
almost transcendental status (at least from a
“Today, we are proud of the fact that we were
Viennese perspective) was tied to an instructive
once modern.”
comparison with other epochal artists such as
The suggestive, bewitching, and commercially
Picasso and Kandinsky: while each struck out
appealing glamour of the beautiful as it emanates
onto radical pathways around the same time,
from Klimt’s paintings has long since immunized
opening the door to modernism, then Klimt—it
Vienna’s greatest master from nuanced
is said—was the artist who, in his specialized
considerations. Vienna and Klimt: a Mobius
Viennese biotope, drove the aesthetic of the
strip of self-referentiality and affirmation. The
nineteenth century to a grandiose finale.
process of heroization has reached a stage of
Klimt’s crowning achievement was nonetheless
rigidification; the cult of the masterworks, the
a terminus, supplying no new impulses for
incessant process of reproduction, have led to
development in the arts. Much earlier, the art
automatized perception.
historian Werner Hofmann had claimed that Klimt was only peripherally related to the radical
Klimt as Advertising Agency
upheavals of early twentieth century art. In
6
opposition to this stance, “official” Austrian
Klimt runs one of the most successful Viennese
Klimt doctrine—seamlessly interwoven with
advertising agencies—posthumously. Over the
the thematic complex known as “Vienna 1900”—
past few decades, the visual vocabulary of Klimt
Detail of the golden dome from the Secession Building used by WienTourismus as an advertising motif for the 2012 Klimt Year
and the Jugendstil has become stabilized in
collection of works on paper. I shall discuss
Vienna as the effective decor of a fruitful process
these—now presented in their entirety—below in
of image reconstruction. For cultural tourism,
greater detail.
Klimt represents an exclusivity factor that unites a number of different target groups and ideally
The Double Klimt
supplements the mythology of the Habsburgs and the topos of Gemütlichkeit, that marriage of
“Each generation discovers a new Klimt,” claims
imperial tradition and coziness. Around a half-
Klimt expert Tobias G. Natter. Certainly, this is the
century ago, with the rediscovery of the upscale
case for specialists, though it is perhaps less true
label “Vienna 1900,” the city’s firmament of
for the general public. The latter has consistently
memory was charged with a whiff of modernity.
been confronted with an artist whose paintings
And yet this “golden age” of innovation through
are the most expensive ever produced in Austria,
which Vienna has so successfully asserted its
yet whose oeuvre has been reduced in the
worldwide cultural significance lies farther
popular imagination to at most twenty celebrated
and farther in the past, and it has long been
canvases—a set of works that have, moreover, a
threatened by depletion, reduced to no more
kind of double existence: a reality both physical,
than formulaic nostalgia. Today, Klimt enjoys the
in museums, and virtual, in the unending stream
status of a secularized municipal saint, and his
of reproductions. One could speak of the Mona
aesthetic repertoire serves as the gold mine for
Lisa effect: the image is so familiar that tourists
continually new uses. The Wien Museum, too,
do little more than check it off their list dutifully
profits from this.
when at the museum. Particularly for individuals
In the Viennese museum landscape, Klimt is
with a more developed interest in art, Klimt is a
a potent currency for measuring significance.
phenomenon one prefers to ignore: “for me, Klimt
This becomes clear already from the number of
was always just too over-hyped,” says the artist
loan requests that are received. At the very top
Ulrike Lienbacher, for example.
stands the Belvedere, its ranking attributable
This attitude of avoidance may be related to
to the presence of iconic works like The Kiss.
Klimt marketing, which has had cash registers
The Leopold Museum struggles to retain second
ringing for ages. For there exists a second
place. Third place is shared, loosely speaking,
Klimt, the one feeding the merchandisers, for
between the Albertina, with its drawings of
whom the images are little more than the raw
exceptional quality, and the Wien Museum,
material for design variations. In early 2012, the
home not just to a top painting, the Portrait of
Wien Museum conducted a survey on Facebook
Emilie Flöge, but also (in storage) to an enormous
entitled “Worst of Klimt.” Participation was 7
extensive, and the findings led well beyond
Klimt collection (the largest anywhere in
the customary souvenirs: presented online
terms of sheer numbers), already known to art
among other things was a Smart Car with Klimt
lovers through numerous guest appearances
decor, a Klimt toilet seat (no kidding!), a Klimt
in museums worldwide, will be shown in its
bathing suit, even a Klimt body tattoo. Viewed
entirety. Alongside world-famous paintings and
in terms of cultural history, this repro and retro
Klimt’s censored Secession poster, alongside
Klimt is at least as significant for the history of
his death mask, photographs, and his painter’s
the impact of his oeuvre—so well-adapted to
smock, our holdings include some four hundred
kitsch—as the scholarly reception. In a paper
drawings: an immense cosmos. There are sheets
on the collecting strategy of the Wien Museum,
from all career phases, from the student years
we read: “The transformation of art and elite
until shortly before his death, which cohere into
culture into clichés that are reproduced on a
larger cycles. The enormous wealth of sketches,
mass scale is an important element of reception
detailed studies after nature, variations, and
history: an institution such as the Wien Museum,
“finished” drawings is presented—organized
which owns important works by Klimt, is also
into thematic ensembles—in a dense, serial
responsible for the production of retro-Jugendstil
hanging: a shimmering stream of snapshots
souvenirs.” Now, a municipal museum devoted to
offering access to the working process of an
cultural history is to be distinguished from one
artist who struggled doggedly before arriving
devoted exclusively to art, which is why we have
at a final composition. Value judgments become
begun recently to collect “Klimtified” products
relativized, the extraordinary appears as
as documents of contemporary history. Some of
the distillate of the continuous. We are well
these will be on display in the exhibition, along
aware that the consistently non-hierarchical
with selections from the “Worst of Klimt” survey.
installation developed by curator Ursula Storch
Perhaps the new view of Klimt is one that
in collaboration with the architectural office
emerges from the artist’s popularity: even during
BWM (which does, however, subtly emphasize
his lifetime, his art’s ingratiating quality and its
exceptional individual sheets) involves a risky
proximity to kitsch were factors in his success.
game with the aura of an artist whose most
In this light, Klimt appears increasingly as a Pop
fleeting sketches are regularly auctioned as
artist, one entirely comparable to Andy Warhol or
master drawings.
Keith Haring.
In addition, there are videos that not only narrate
But there is also a more serious bridge between
the history of the collection, but are conceived
contemporary art and the “golden” Klimt,
as “discursive commentary”—with statements
namely a renewed interest in the ornamental and
on “Klimt overkill,” on the artist’s significance for
decorative.
tourism in Vienna, and on his ambivalent image of women, also in light of the considerable number
The Collection of the Wien Museum
of often explicitly erotic drawings contained in the collection.
Nearly all of Vienna’s museums are taking
A related element is the series of “Klimt debates”
advantage of 2012—the year that marks Klimt’s
featured in the accompanying program, including
one-hundred-and-fiftieth birthday—to present
one with the title “Images of Women from the
their Klimt holdings. It is also an opportunity to
Day before Yesterday?” and one on the topic
display less-known works alongside canonized
“Klimt Overdose: A Danger for Vienna.”
masterpieces. Hopefully, a range of approaches
Well adapted to this context is a headline that
and modes of presentation will generate startling
appeared recently in Die Presse: “Can Klimt Still
perspectives and illuminating distinctions in
Be Rescued?”
relation to a star artist who often suffers from the conviction that we know him all too well. The Wien Museum has resolved upon a radical approach: for the first time ever, the museum’s 8
Thanks to Klimt For her role as curator of the exhibition—giving the museum its first opportunity to examine a core ensemble of works held in its care—and for her development of the show’s underlying concept, my thanks go to Ursula Storch, who has been passionately involved with the Klimt collection of the Wien Museum for many years. The exhibition design is the work of Johann Moser, in collaboration with Sanja Utech, of BWM Architekten; the graphic design is by the office Perndl+Co, with Gerhard Bauer, in collaboration with Katharina Hetzeneder, contributing the exhibition graphics and Josef Perndl, in collaboration with Aleksandra Gustin, the catalogue design. My deepest thanks to all of you for your commitment and your efforts, as always with great functional and formal precision. This volume will serve as a catalogue raisonné of our Klimt collection; many drawings are published here for the first time. Kerstin Krenn’s collaboration has proven invaluable, both regarding the cataloguing of the oeuvre and the realization of the exhibition and publication. My gratitude goes to all of the catalogue authors for their contributions, which provide crucial reinterpretations of Gustav Klimt’s works and their reception. Ralph Gleis supplied major support with regard to the media stations. My thanks also to Isabelle Exinger-Lang for production management, and Andreas Gruber and Alexandra Moser for paper conservation. Complementing the exhibition is the Vienna Library’s presentation of posters, based on a concept by Julia König and Sylvia Mattl-Wurm: the installation traces the history of Klimt exhibitions, as well as the transfer of imagery from Klimt’s motifs to products and tourism advertising. Wolfgang Kos Director, Wien Museum
9
10
Texts
11
The Klimt Collection of the Wien Museum Facts and Conclusions
Ursula Storch 1 I employ the designation “Wien Museum” when referring to the institution during the period from 2003 to the present, and when speaking about the history of the museum as a whole from a contemporary perspective. The name “Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien” (Museum of History of the City of Vienna) applies to the period between 1939 and 2003. Since its foundation in 1888 and up until 1939, the museum formed a department of Vienna’s Municipal Collections. All three designations refer to the same institution, as does the shorthand reference to “the museum,” which appears in the appropriate contexts.
Based on the absolute numbers of catalogue
entirety for the very first time in our history as an
entries for works by Gustav Klimt, one must
institution. This single enterprise on the part of
conclude that the Wien Museum is in possession
a museum of cultural history leads into the kind
of the largest Klimt collection in the world. With
of uncharted territory a pure art museum might
roughly four hundred drawings by the iconic
wish to avoid, but at the same time allows us to
artist from late nineteenth-century Vienna—
occupy a very special niche in the context of the
the era of “Vienna 1900”—the museum leaves
various Klimt exhibitions announced for 2012,
all other institutions behind. The collection
while also posing the question: “How much Klimt
further includes eight other original works, all oil
can Vienna endure?”
paintings, at least two of which must be ranked
Our approach brings with it a welcome ancillary
among the most important by this artist. By virtue
effect for the Wien Museum and for Klimt
2 Dedication without document no., inv. no. 1.693.
of their rarity, Klimt’s posters for the Vienna
research in general: for the first time ever, a
Secession are also a key part of his oeuvre.
factual analysis of the collection is being carried
As a museum of cultural history—in German,
out, one likely to result in the clarification of a
a “Universalmuseum”—the Wien Museum is in
range of questions that transcend the exhibition
possession of an extensive series of additional
itself.
objects that are related to Gustav Klimt in various ways. These include one of his famous
On the History of the Collection
blue painter’s smocks, portrait photographs
12
taken by the most celebrated photographers of
How, one might ask, did such a collection come
his time, two busts depicting the artist, his death
together in the first place?
mask, a drawing by Egon Schiele depicting his
The acquisitions can be traced back to the most
colleague in the room where he was laid out
diverse sources, and took place over a period of one
after his death at the Allgemeines Krankenhaus,
hundred and ten years. The following chronological
as well as a series of Klimt souvenirs in whose
sketch is intended to provide insights into the
absence—especially in 2012—the product
genesis of the Klimt collection of the Wien Museum.
palette of Viennese tourism marketing would be
The object with the lowest inventory number
unthinkable.
among our Klimt holdings is an original drawing
This so-called Klimt year, which marks the one-
of a design for a gift to be given to ladies
hundred-and-fiftieth anniversary of his birth,
attending the Ball of the City of Vienna in 1892;
represents an opportunity to present the Wien Museum’s1 collection of works by Austria’s
it came into the Municipal Collections in 1893 as
internationally most celebrated painter in its
municipal council.2
a donation from the executive committee of the
The next Klimt objects entered the collection in
intended for an architectural archive that was
1901. In 1882–84, the Viennese publisher Gerlach
to be accommodated in the new building of the
& Schenk had published a book of reproductions
municipal museum.8
for artists under the title Allegorien und Embleme
The next addition to the Klimt collection
(Allegories and Emblems); its successor
occurred in 1921, when Vienna became an
publication was entitled Allegorien: Neue Folge
autonomous federal state. In accordance with
1895–1900 (Allegories: New Series 1895–1900).
the laws governing the allocation of state
5 No document no., inv. no. 31.813.
For the first publication, Klimt contributed two
assets, all pictures, plans, views, and books of
oil paintings and five drawings, for the second
relevance to Vienna were transferred from the
6 Cited from Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt: Die Zeichnungen 1878–1918, Nachtrag, vol. IV (Salzburg, 1989), p. 48.
edition an oil painting and three drawings, which
Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum (State
are today world-famous. After all of the originals
Museum of Lower Austria) to the Municipal
had been exhibited in the reception rooms of
Collections. Listed at number thirty-six in the
8 Document no. 453/1918, inv. no. 96.032.
Vienna’s Town Hall,3 the complete collection—
inventory of works of fine arts is “Portrait of
9 Document no. 730/1921, inv. no. 45.677.
including the eleven above-mentioned works
a Woman, Gustav Klimt,” which refers to his
by Klimt—was purchased for the Municipal
Portrait of Emilie Flöge, today among the most
10 Document no. 1308/1928, finished drawing: inv. no. 116.210.
Collections.4
celebrated and certainly one of the most precious
Six years later, in 1907, a drawing by Klimt entitled
paintings in the Wien Museum.9
The Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater entered the
In 1928, with the purchase of the collection of
3 Exhibition in the town hall reception rooms of works published by Gerlach & Schenk, exh. cat. Vienna Town Hall (Vienna, 1901). 4 Document no. 313/1901. The Klimt works were inventoried under nos. 25.001, 25.005, 25.007, 25.014, 25.016, 25.021, 25.022, 25.025, 25.215, 25.256, and 26.373.
7 Allocation protocols 138 and 139/1909, inv. nos. 33.907 and 33.908.
11 Hitherto, it was assumed that the work depicted the collector’s wife. Recently, it was proposed that the subject might instead be August Heymann’s sister (cf. Monika Sommer and Alexandra Steiner-Strauss, Gustav Klimt und Wien: Spaziergänge zu den Orten seines Wirkens (Vienna, 2012), pp. 153–59). Since the work’s provenance remains the sole clue to its iconography, the sitter’s identity is still in doubt.
inventory. In a curriculum vitae of 1893, the artist
Albert Berger, Klimt’s famous posters for the first
provides the following information about the
and eighteenth Secession exhibitions, including
work’s inception: “In 1888–89, for a commission
the finished drawing for the former, became part
from the municipal council, I painted a view of
of the museum’s holdings.10
the auditorium of the Old Burgtheater for the
In 1937, another female portrait by Klimt entered
12 Document no. 1200/1937, inv. no. 61.061.
Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien. For this
the collection. This portrait of an unknown
13 Document no. 586/1939, inv. no. 60.466.
composition, which contains approximately 150
woman11 formed part of the collection of Dr.
portraits in watercolor, I received the Kaiser
August Heymann—a diverse collection of
14 My sincerest thanks in this connection to Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, Tobias G. Natter, and Othmar Rychlik for discussions on this topic.
5
preis in the amount of 400 ducats at the annual
cultural and historical materials related to
exhibition of 1890 at the Künstlerhaus.”6
Vienna, comprising altogether more than ten
In 1909, two meticulous watercolor death
thousand objects—which was purchased from
portraits entered the collection as a donation
the collector’s daughter.12
from a private Viennese collection.7 Both
Purchased on March 21, 1939, at an auction
subjects were well-known Viennese personalities,
held at the Dorotheum was sales item number
Julius von Lott (1836–1883), chairman of the
558: “Klimt: Sappho, oil sketch.”13 Although an
board of the state railway construction company,
entry in the inventory indicates that the painting
and the art historian Rudolf von Eitelberger
originally belonged to a cleaning woman of
(1817–1885), who was the founding director of the
Klimt’s, its attribution to Klimt has meanwhile
Austrian Museum for Art and Industry, and of
been disputed by a number of experts.14 It may in
the School of Applied Arts originally associated
fact be an early work of Gustav Klimt’s younger
with it.
brother Ernst.
Not long before his death in 1918, the Jugendstil
The earliest drawing in the collection is a signed
architect Otto Wagner approached the museum
(perhaps only later?)15 portrait of a woman that
with the request that it consider purchasing
Klimt executed in 1877, when he was just fifteen
the entire contents of the parlor adjacent to
years old, presumably after a photograph; it was
his studio in order to preserve it for posterity.
purchased in 1940 from a private collection.16
The enclosed typewritten inventory lists ninety-
Two additional sheets, both produced in
three objects, together with prices, with the
connection with the ceiling paintings intended
seventeenth item listed as “Klimt. Female head,
for the University of Vienna, were purchased at an
hand drawing K 250.” After Wagner’s death, this
auction held at the Dorotheum in early November
purchase did in fact take place; the objects were
of 1942.17
15 The signature is the one used by Klimt only beginning in the mid-1890s; the academic nudes produced at the School of Applied Arts in the late 1870s, on the other hand, are signed in a rather conventional manner. 16 Document no. 226/1940, inv. no. 66.054. 17 Document no. 1241/1942, inv. nos. 71.506 and 71.507. The latter was restituted in 2006—for more detail on this incident, see present text below.
13
18 Assignment protocol 363/1944, inv. nos. 74.930/1-273. 19 Document no. 78/1947, inv. no. 75.403. 20 Document no. 857/1951, inv. nos. 96.482/1-33. 21 Document no. 1/1952, inv. nos. 90.501, 90.502 and 96.730. 22 Document no. 455/1952, inv. nos. 96.936/1-14.
“I bequeath these drawings by Gustav KLIMT to
as Karlsbad—was purchased from a private
the city of Vienna.” In 1944, as a consequence of
collection, along with one further drawing.31
this sentence in the will of Franziska Klimt, the
Another drawing by Klimt entered the collection
widow of Gustav’s brother Georg, 273 drawings
in 1960 as a result of a trade (this is no longer a
entered the collection of the Wien Museum all at
customary practice at the museum). In exchange,
once, making it the institution with the largest
the private vendor received a watercolor by
number of Klimt drawings worldwide.
Wilhelm Kobell.32
18
In 1947, a study for a portrait in oils of Mäda
Purchased from the Nebehay art dealership
Primavesi (ca. 1912) was sold to the museum by
in 1962 were ten sheets, among them seven
the painting’s sitter.19
additional studies for the Auditorium in the Old
During the 1950s and early 1960s, under the
Burgtheater and Klimt’s design for the grave
direction of Franz Glück, the rate of Klimt
cross for his deceased brother Ernst.33 An
acquisitions intensified: in 1951, for example,
additional sheet was purchased at auction in
thirty-three drawings were purchased from
Munich.34
Viennese private collections,20 and in the
During the following year, there were three
following year, three drawings were acquired
sales of works by Klimt via the Nebehay art
from the Neue Galerie, among them one of
dealership: two drawings,35 a notebook with notes
Klimt’s extremely rare animal studies, which
and preparatory sketches for the Auditorium in
depicts two dogs. Also in 1952, fourteen studies
the Old Burgtheater,36 and finally, an oil sketch
26 Document no. 836/1955, inv. nos. 101.046/1-10 and 101.059/1-10.
for the Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater entered
for the right-hand side of the poster for the
27 Document no. 784/1956, inv. nos. 101.447-101.456.
the collection via the Kende Auction House.
International Exhibition of Music and Theater
In 1954, Klimt’s oil painting Pallas Athena of 1898,
of 1892,37 whose left-hand side was the work
a programmatic image related to the foundation
of Ernst Klimt. Since the published poster is
of the Vienna Secession, was purchased from the
signed simply “Ernst Klimt,” and there exists
29 Dedication without document no., inv. nos. 101.718 and 101.719.
Galerie Neumann for 20,000 schillings; since then,
no definitive documentation for Gustav Klimt’s
30 Document no. 141/1958, inv. no. 101.784.
it has been one of the most requested objects for
authorship, occasional doubts still remain about
exhibitions on the theme of Vienna around 1900.
this attribution.38
23 Document no. 692/1954, inv. no. 100.686. 24 Document no. 797/1954, inv. no. 115.143. 25 Document no. 484/1955, inv. nos. 105.306/1-3. These drawings may have been executed by Franz Matsch as studies for a painting of the Burgtheater; conceived as a pendant to Gustav Klimt’s Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater, the painting shows the stage from the auditorium. Alice Strobl incorporated them into the catalogue raisonné of Klimt’s drawings, while Marian BisanzPrakken has reinforced existing doubts about Klimt’s authorship.
28 Document no. 810/1957, inv. nos. 101.692-101.694.
21
22
23
31 Document no. 302/1958, inv. no. 101.903.
In 1955, another drawing entered the museum
Added to the collection in 1965 was a signed
collection as part of the estate of the art critic
pastel by Klimt, a portrait of Marie Moll, which
32 Document no. 652/1960, inv. no. 114.949.
Arthur Roessler, acquired by the museum in
was purchased from a Canadian private
return for a lifetime annuity for Roessler and his
collection.39
wife, Ida.
The next purchase of an original work by Klimt
33 Document no. 769/1962, inv. nos. 115.855, 115.856/1-7, 115.857 and 115.858.
24
34 Document no. 797/1962, inv. no. 115.888.
Also acquired in 1955 at the Dorotheum auction
for the collection of the Wien Museum came
house were three additional pencil studies for
more than twenty years later, in the form of a
35 Document no. 350/1963, inv. nos. 115.982 and 115.983.
the Auditorium in the Old Burgtheater, along
drawing for the university painting Jurisprudence,
with twenty drawings from Viennese private
acquired from a private collection.40 In 1988
collections in two batches.26
came the final purchase of a Klimt drawing, a
37 Document no. 169/1963, inv. no. 115.911.
In 1956, Helene Donner, Klimt’s niece, offered the
study for the university painting Medicine, whose
museum thirty-five drawings, of which ten were
availability for purchase from an art dealership
38 In this context as well, my sincerest thanks to Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Brigitte Borchhardt-Birbaumer, Tobias G. Natter, and Othmar Rychlik for their expertise.
ultimately purchased.27
was brought to the museum’s attention by the
In 1957, the museum selected three additional
Agency of Federal Monuments.41
drawings out of an extensive offering from a
At this point, it should be mentioned briefly that
Parisian private collection. Two additional
on the whole, the sums paid by the museum for
finished drawings by Klimt for issue three of the
the acquisition of Klimt drawings have been
36 Document no. 891/1963, inv. no. 116.386.
39 Document no. 729/1965, inv. no. 133.369. 40 Document no. 1734/1986, inv. no. 186.207.
25
28
Vienna Secession’s journal Ver Sacrum, published
entirely consistent with typical art market prices,
41 Document no. 1051/1988, inv. no. 186.269.
in 1898, were acquired as a donation from a source
and have even, in some cases, been considerably
42 This assessment is based on the prices assembled by Alice Strobl in Strobl, Klimt, 1989, pp. 226–28.
that, regrettably, can no longer be identified.
lower than the norm.42
In 1958, a Klimt watercolor—a study for the
A special case with regard to our Klimt holdings
theater curtain in Karlovy Vary, then known
is represented by the ceiling paintings of
14
29
30
The only known photograph of Gustav Klimt’s painting Silence (upper right in the light frame)
the Hermesvilla, used by the Wien Museum
City of Vienna in 1999, a drawing by Klimt related
beginning in 1976 as an exhibition venue. In
to the university painting Medicine that had been
1885, succeeding the recently deceased Hans
auctioned at the Dorotheum in November of 1942
Makart, the Künstler-Compagnie—which is to
was restored to the heirs of Heinrich Rieger, in
say Gustav Klimt, his brother Ernst, and Franz
whose collection the sheet had originally been
Matsch—completed the painting of the cavetti in
found.47 To date, it has proven impossible to
the bedroom of Empress Elizabeth after designs
restore a highly prominent second sheet—the
46 Alfred Weidinger et al., “Kommentiertes Gesamtverzeichnis des malerischen Werks,” in Alfred Weidinger, ed., Gustav Klimt (Munich et al., 2007), p. 281.
by Julius Victor Berger. They were able to realize
transfer drawing for the university painting
47 Document no. 31/2006.
the ceiling paintings in the adjacent empress’s
Philosophy, which was sold during the same
salon according to their own designs. They
auction—to its rightful owners, who have yet to
chose to depict Spring, for which Gustav Klimt
be identified. Needless to say, the Wien Museum
contributed the figure of Diana above a garland
is continuing to search for the rightful owners
of flowers borne by putti. Due to severe damage
and would appreciate any helpful information in
to the building during World War II, unfortunately,
this regard.
little remains of this original substance.
Following a resolution passed by the Municipal
43
Over the past two decades, the Klimt collection
Council on February 3, 1983, the Historisches
of the Wien Museum has not only been
Museum relinquished seven Klimt drawings,
augmented—there have also been losses of
along with a series of Secession posters (i.e.
various kinds. The Historisches Museum der
duplicates) to the New York art dealer Serge
Stadt Wien was the owner—if only temporarily—
Sabarsky, in compensation for which the
of two oil paintings, namely the Portrait of Mäda
museum received an important drawing by
Primavesi (ca. 1912) and Birch Trees (1903). The
Schiele.48
portrait was purchased at an auction at the
Mentioned now for the sake of completeness is
Dorotheum in 1941, and was restored in 1952
an additional Klimt painting, which, although
to the heirs of Jenny Steiner. It now hangs in
theoretically the property of the Wien Museum,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
has regrettably never actually been in our
Birch Trees, a painting from the Bloch-Bauer
possession. This symbolist painting, entitled
collection, was purchased in 1942 by a law firm
Silence, was exhibited in 1898 at the second
and transferred to the Österreichische Galerie
Secession exhibition.49 It was purchased by
in 1948; in 2006, the painting was restored to its
Otto Wagner, who left it to his heirs. In 1945, the
rightful inheritors.
apartment of his daughter Christine was seized
44
45
46
In 2006, as a consequence of the passage of laws
and re-leased, along with all of its furnishings and
governing the restitution of art adopted by the
inventories. Since the apartment also contained
43 Hermesvilla, 2nd rev. ed. (Vienna, 1986), pp. 16–21. 44 Document no. 101/1941, inv. no. 69.204. 45 Document no. 1349/1942, inv. no. 71.500.
48 Document no. 1242/1982. The relinquished sheets were catalogued as inv. nos. 74.930/181, 194, 200, 240, 242, 262, and 267. 49 Cf. the catalogue to the second Secession exhibition (Vienna, 1898), no. 73.
15
a number of items of furniture based on designs
We begin with an overview of our own exhibitions
by Otto Wagner, which were regarded as having
at which Klimt objects were displayed. In 1964, the
cultural and historic value for Vienna, Wagner’s
Office for Culture of the City of Vienna initiated
daughter launched a campaign in 1947—with
an exhibition on the theme of “Vienna 1900,”
the support of the Historisches Museum—to
which took place simultaneously at four different
have them, along with the remaining inventory,
venues in Vienna. Presented in what was then the
restored to her. In the course of investigations,
Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien were prints,
a joint memorandum was drawn up on December
books, and posters. Shown in this exhibition from
16, 1948, in which Wagner’s daughter registered
the museum’s own holdings, accordingly, were
the following statement: “Furthermore, I bestow
posters for the first and eighteenth Secession
upon the Municipal Collections (in the event that
exhibition, as well as issues of Ver Sacrum
I resume possession of the furnishings which
containing illustrations by Klimt.54
55 Wiener Stilkunst um 1900. Zeichnungen und Aquarelle im Besitz des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, exh. cat., sixty-first special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1979).
belong to and were found in the apartment)
In summer of 1979, works by Klimt made their
the above-mentioned Klimt painting, ‘Silence,’
first major appearance in the exhibition Wiener
as well as other objects to be agreed upon in
Stilkunst um 1900: Zeichnungen und Aquarelle im
consultation with the direction of the Municipal
Besitz des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien,
56 Heidemarie Uhl, “‘Wien um 1900’— das making of eines Gedächtnisortes,” in Monika Sommer et al., eds., Imaging Vienna: Innensichten, Außensichten, Stadterzählungen (Vienna, 2006), p. 49.
Collections.” A photograph that accompanies
which took place in the Hermesvilla. Twenty-
the file documents the painting, shown hanging
eight drawings by Klimt were presented, mainly
on the wall of the apartment; unfortunately
collection highlights.55 Although William M.
57 Gustav Klimt, Zeichnungen aus amerikanischem Privatbesitz ausgewählt von Serge Sabarsky und aus Beständen des Historischen Museums der Stadt Wien, exh. cat., 89th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1984).
its appearance in the image is very dark.
Johnston’s The Austrian Mind: An Intellectual and
Correspondence with Wagner’s daughter breaks
Social History, 1848–1938 had appeared already
off in January of 1952. To date, nothing is known
in German in 1974 as Österreichische Kultur-
about the painting’s present whereabouts; in
und Geistesgeschichte: Gesellschaft und Ideen
1950, it was entered into a typed note at the
im Donauraum 1848 bis 1938, thereby effecting
museum with the heading Otto Wagner: list of
the first step in the rediscovery of the cultural
missing items; in the literature, it is regarded as
history of Vienna around the turn of the twentieth
being lost as of 1898, or 1903 (Weidinger).
century, it was only the translation into German
50 Document no. 917/1947, 1997/1948, 1143/1951. 51 Document no. 1997/1948. 52 Fritz Novotny and Johannes Dobai, Gustav Klimt (Salzburg, 1967), p. 308 (without a work no.; erroneously assigned to the eighteenth Secession exhibition); Weidinger et al., “Kommentiertes Gesamtverzeichnis,” in Weidinger, ed., Klimt, 2007, no. 129. 53 Cf. Schausammlung Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1984), pp. 294–95. 54 Wien um 1900, exh. cat. Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1964), no. 309, no. 324, nos. 342–43.
58 Document no. 1092/1983.
50
51
52
of Carl E. Schorske’s Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: The Utilization of the Collection
Politics and Culture (1980), which came out in 1982 as Wien, Geist und Gesellschaft im Fin de
16
But what should a museum actually do with such
Siècle, that gave momentum to the international
a collection?
wave of enthusiasm for “Vienna 1900.”56 Taking
Over the past decade, oil paintings such as the
place in 1984 was the sole exhibition dedicated
Portrait of Emilie Flöge, Pallas Athena, and Love
entirely to Klimt in the Historisches Museum,
have been displayed primarily as parts of the
organized in conjunction with New York art dealer
permanent collection of the Wien Museum.53 To
Serge Sabarsky and featuring drawings from
begin with, the museum suffers from an acute
American private collections alongside those
shortage of space, which makes it virtually
from the museum’s own collection.57 On view
impossible to present more than three paintings
on this occasion were fifty drawings from our
by any one artist on a permanent basis. In
holdings. Attendance numbers of around 45,000
addition, the drawings cannot be displayed for
contributed decisively to the decision to send
extended periods of time for reasons related to
the exhibition on tour. The works traveled to the
their conservation. Still, portions of the collection
Kestner-Gesellschaft in Hannover, then to the
have been regularly drawn upon for exhibitions,
Villa Stuck in Munich, before being hosted in the
if never in their entirety. Relevant in this context
spring of 1985 at the Neue Galerie in Linz.58
are both in-house exhibitions as well as those
Taking place that same year in the Künstlerhaus
organized by other institutions for which works
was the legendary exhibition Dream and Reality:
from the museum’s collection have been made
Vienna 1870–1930, which was organized and
available as loans.
conceptualized by the Historisches Museum der
View of the exhibition Vienna 1900 at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1986), with the paintings Pallas Athena and Portrait of Emilie Flöge from the Wien Museum
Stadt Wien. This show is still regarded in Vienna
drawing by Klimt was among the one hundred
as a high point among exhibitions devoted to
selected sheets included in the exhibition
the city, and with more than 622,000 visitors, its
Skizzen, Studien, Meisterblätter: Wiener Graphik
59 Traum und Wirklichkeit: Wien 1870–1930, exh. cat., 95th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1985).
attendance figures have never been surpassed.
aus fünf Jahrhunderten,62 and in 2003, his
60 Uhl, “Wien um 1900,” 2006, p. 63.
Assembled here was the crème de la crème in
Secession posters were part of the exhibition
relation to the theme of “Vienna 1900”; both the
Kraftflächen: Wiener Plakatkunst um 1900. The
museums and private collectors from Austria and
following year, the drawing from the estate of
abroad contributed exceptionally high-quality
Arthur Roessler, a standing female nude, was
loan objects. Alongside numerous objects from
exhibited as part of Schiele & Roessler: Der
its own collection, the Historisches Museum
Künstler und sein Förderer,64 and in 2008–09, the
contributed seven of its eight Klimt oil paintings,
Portrait of Emilie Flöge was the central object of
among them, of course, the Portrait of Emilie
the exhibition Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der
Flöge and Pallas Athena, the Auditorium in the
Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte.
63
65
Old Burgtheater, two of his drawings, and the uncensored version of the poster for the first
Aside from a significant number of Klimt objects
Secession exhibition. Emboldened by this
shown in exhibitions organized by the museum in
show’s tremendous success, others organized
the years between 1979 and 1989, this institution
related exhibitions in subsequent years, among
seems to have displayed relatively limited
them Vienne 1880–1938: L’Apocalypse Joyeuse at
interest in these particular holdings. At the same
the Centre Pompidou in Paris,60 and Vienna 1900:
time, a survey of the loan requests and contracts
Art, Architecture & Design at New York’s Museum
for objects by Klimt make it clear that the
of Modern Art.
Klimt collection of the Wien Museum has been
In 1988–89, with the exhibition Emilie Flöge und
well-known and in considerable demand both
Gustav Klimt: Doppelporträt in Ideallandschaft,
nationally and internationally.66
mounted in the Hermesvilla, the Historisches
Depending upon the specific circumstances,
Museum der Stadt Wien once more showed a
the institution known today as the Wien
selection of its Klimt holdings, namely two oil
Museum has always adopted a favorable
paintings (again including, needless to say, the
attitude toward requests for loans of items
Portrait of Emilie Flöge), two posters, and five
from the Klimt collection. It loaned objects to
drawings.61
the Klimt memorial exhibitions that took place
Over the past fifteen years, only individual Klimt
at the Secession as early as 1928 and 1943, for
objects have been shown in exhibitions of the
example. The Klimt exhibitions taking place in the
Wien Museum. In 1996, for example, a single
Albertina in 1962 and 1968 also included works
59
61 Emilie Flöge und Gustav Klimt: Doppelporträt in Ideallandschaft, exh. cat., 112th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1988). 62 Skizzen, Studien, Meisterblätter: Wiener Graphik aus fünf Jahrhunderten, exh. cat., 216th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 1996), pp. 65–66. 63 Kraftflächen: Wiener Plakatkunst um 1900, exh. cat., 303th special exhibition of the Historisches Museum der Stadt Wien (Vienna, 2003), pp. 43–47. 64 Schiele & Roessler: Der Künstler und sein Förderer: Kunst und Networking im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, exh. cat. Wien Museum (Ostfildern, 2004), p. 151. 65 Glanzstücke: Emilie Flöge und der Schmuck der Wiener Werkstätte, exh. cat. Wien Museum (Stuttgart, 2008). 66 Since not all documents pertaining to loans have been archived over the past decades, we must assume that the following entries are representative of tendencies, while the corrected numbers would have to be somewhat higher.
17
Poster from the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne with motif Portrait of Emilie Flöge, 2011
Klimt collection of the Wien Museum on the
five loan requests since 1980. In the category of
87 Document no. 2377/1995.
international exhibition stage. The above list
works on paper, unsurprisingly, are the frequently
88 Document no. 481/2002.
excludes loans of individual works or small
published trio of finished drawings for Klimt’s
89 Document no. 486/2002.
ensembles of objects, along with the countless
contribution to the pattern book Allegorien: Neue
90 Document no. 694/2001.
loan requests that had to be turned down for a
Folge, namely Tragedy, Sculpture, and Junius, with
variety of reasons. In this category are a number
twenty-five to thirty loan requests each. Since
of solicitations involving plans to base entire
1980, approximately twenty requests each were
Klimt exhibitions on the holdings of the Wien
received for the two finished drawings for the Ver
Museum, most of them rejected for reasons of
Sacrum illustrations Envy and Nuda Veritas, as
conservation: for example, plans for an exhibition
well as for the Gorgons, a study for the Beethoven
of roughly eighty Klimt drawings, which would
Frieze.
have toured four major U.S. museums in the late 1990s,87 an exhibition envisioned for the
The Collection in the Commemorative Year of
Warsaw Historical Museum for 2002,88 one for
2012
the Athens Concert Hall, also for 2002, and a 89
Klimt exhibition envisioned for the Museo de arte
This factual analysis makes clear that the Klimt
moderno de Bogota in 2003.
collection of the Wien Museum has—in particular
90
This factually oriented inventory continues
since the 1980s—played an essential role in
now with a brief mention of the most frequently
the international exhibition merry-go-round on
requested Klimt objects in the Wien Museum
the theme of “Vienna 1900.” To recapitulate: the
since 1980—which is not to suggest that all of
museum’s sole exhibition devoted exclusively to
the objects mentioned were actually loaned.
Gustav Klimt took place in 1984, which is to say,
On the contrary: most of these requests had to
nearly thirty years ago. During the same period,
be refused, mainly for reasons of conservation.
the Wien Museum accommodated requests for
With about forty requests over the past thirty
nearly eight hundred loans of works by Klimt.
years, the oil painting Pallas Athena ranks at
These circumstances may help to explain the
the very top. The Portrait of Emilie Flöge follows,
museum’s decision to present its Klimt collection
with around thirty requests, although it is not
on its own premises during this commemorative
exactly a secret that this painting—one of the
year. Finally, the public has the right to see these
Wien Museum’s most precious and celebrated
holdings in their entirety for what may be the
paintings—is permitted to leave the premises
only time in the museum’s history—including
only on the most exceptional occasions. In third
the 131 Klimt works that have been purchased
place is the painting Love, with around twenty-
with public funds since 1901 and that, together 19
91 Arthur Roessler, In memoriam Gustav Klimt (Vienna, 1926), unpaginated. 92 Inv. no. 74.930/176. 93 Inv. no. 74.930/230. 94 Ludwig Hevesi, “Haus Wärndorfer,” in idem, Altkunst–Neukunst: Wien 1894–1908 (Vienna, 1909), p. 223.
with other endowed works, have now been
inscription “longer,”92 or a sketch for a painting
researched, administered, and subjected to
bears the color notation “WEISS,” “SCHWARZ,”
conservation measures thanks to public support
“GRAU,” for future reference.93 Klimt’s working
from taxpayers.
method, his struggle to arrive at the final
Needless to say, all of our Klimt oil paintings will
design, can only be understood in relation to the
be on display on this occasion. To show all of the
enormous wealth of detailed studies and series
approximately four hundred drawings without
of sketches to which Arthur Roessler refers
making any evaluative selection among them
above. This process of understanding, finally,
represents a relatively unconventional approach,
also involves comprehending that each drawing,
but one that allows viewers to arrive at insights
even one by an exceptionally gifted artist,
that could not be reached in the context of other
cannot claim to be a work of art having timeless
Viennese Klimt exhibitions being held this year.
value—nor was that intended. The fact that only
The majority of the drawings are either rapidly
a very few Klimt drawings are signed constitutes
executed sketches, essentially shorthand
additional and unmistakable testimony to the
versions of ideas that occurred to Klimt, or they
value he personally attached to these works. The
belong to extensive series of study sheets for oil
fact that even studies, which the artist probably
paintings; Klimt used such studies as a means to
had no intention of preserving, fetch impressive
try out details, reject them, seek out alternative
prices on the art market is a circumstance whose
solutions, and arrive at new variants. Given the
irrationality is worth discussing—particularly in
large number of drawings, it is hardly surprising
view of the large number of known drawings and
that notable differences of quality are evident.
their qualitative differences.
Not all of these works, however, were meant to be
A universal museum like the Wien Museum,
preserved for posterity. Klimt himself attributed
whose focus is Viennese cultural history in its
little value to most of them. A number of
entirety, is also in a position to pose far-reaching
contemporaries left observations of his treatment
questions about Gustav Klimt and Vienna. In
of the drawings, among them the art critic
the framework of this exhibition, Klimt’s image
Arthur Roessler: “I myself saw stacks of study
of women is subjected to critical examination,
sheets taller than a man in Klimt’s workshop,
and the market value of his works is explored
among them dozens which treated the same
carefully, as is the question of his long-term
motif, a hand, a shoulder, a rump, a pair of legs,
impact on Vienna—in both aesthetic and
a standing or reclining figure, the contrapuntal
economic terms.
employment or entanglement of two bodies, or
To be reexamined in this context, for example, is
just a gesticulation, a gentle gesture; the same
the verdict of art critic Ludwig Hevesi, who waxed
thing many times, but always seen anew and
enthusiastic in 1905 about the Vienna of his time
repeated. Klimt valued this wealth of studies
on the occasion of an invitation to visit the villa
as assiduously as he did his penetrating works
of the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer, which was
after nature, solely as a means to an end, and
decorated by Charles Rennie Macintosh and the
he destroyed thousands of them once they had
Wiener Werkstätte: “There is a new poetry in the
served their purpose, or if they failed to embody
world, one hitherto undreamt. An austere beauty,
the most extreme expressiveness with the most
after all of the sweetness of the nineteenth
sparing evocation of technique.” Visitors to the 2012 Klimt exhibition in the Wien
century, whose own celebrity will be for having
Museum will enjoy a unique opportunity to watch
invented saccharin. How remarkable that Vienna,
the artist over his shoulder, so to speak, to catch
of all places, should be the capital city of this
him in the creative act, to observe his artistic
new austerity, arrived at with such seriousness,
search for the most suitable form, the most
emanating from such masculine nerves,
fitting mode of expression. Especially illuminating
exercising such a novel charm. Vienna is the city
in this context are the few drawings on which a
of Gustav Klimt, whose paintings are extra dry—
section of a female back, for example, bears the
like champagne for men.”94
91
20
concocted the best bonbons, and even for having
Highlights and Rarities The Klimt Drawings of the Wien Museum
Marian Bisanz-Prakken 1 Depicted here according to a note is “Frau Taglang.” 2 Handwritten record by Hermine Klimt about the life of Gustav Klimt, cited from Christian M. Nebehay, Gustav Klimt: Dokumentation (Vienna, 1969), p. 60. For additional examples of these very early, photographically precise portraits, cf. Alice Strobl, Gustav Klimt: Die Zeichnungen 1878–1903, vol. I (Salzburg, 1980), cat. rais. nos. 26–30; idem, Gustav Klimt: Die Zeichnungen 1878–1918, Nachtrag, vol. IV (Salzburg, 1989), cat. rais. nos. 3184–3168. The subject of no. 3184, a portrait of the fifteen-year-old Paula Taglang, which was executed from a photograph “around 1876” (according to a note by Georg Klimt), was, presumably, the daughter of the subject of the oval portrait cited above. 3 Albert Ilg in Martin Gerlach, ed., Allegorien und Embleme (Vienna, 1882), vol. I, p. 1.
22
Given their variety, it is far from easy to offer a
and 1880 emphasize anatomical details through
summary characterization of the approximately
subtle effects of light and dark and incisive
four hundred drawings by Gustav Klimt held in
contour lines. Only much later did Klimt devote
the Wien Museum. Major foci of the collection
himself primarily to the female nude.
include outstanding works of Historicism,
A key position in Klimt’s early graphic production
Symbolism, and early Secessionism, but present
is assumed by the five pictorial compositions
as well are remarkable works and high points
he produced between 1881 and 1884, along
among the numerous sheets from the Golden
with two painted works, as contributions
Style period and the late years. Without any
to a series of reproductions Allegorien und
pretense to completeness, the following overview
Embleme (Allegories and Emblems), edited
looks at a number of highlights and some virtually
by Martin Gerlach. Very much in the spirit
unknown aspects of the collection, too.
of Historicism, the German and Austrian
The earliest—and to date unpublished—drawing
artists who participated in this project were
from the Klimt Collection of the Wien Museum
to dedicate themselves to “the most elevated,
is an oval portrait, given a photolike finish, of a
the most elemental, and hence most eternally
woman in middle age (cat. no. 1.1).1 There can
valid concepts,” i.e. those which “all epochs
be no doubt that the signature and the date of
and schools have practiced for centuries.”3
1877 were added by the artist himself, albeit
This represented a welcome opportunity for
at a later point in time—in all likelihood in the
the young Gustav to demonstrate his abilities
1890s. This work—Klimt’s earliest dated work
publicly; in these autonomous works, he was able
according to the current research—is among
to display his facility as a draftsman in a range
the likenesses that the budding artist, working
of techniques. In the treatment of the individual
from photographs, produced in his free time
scenes as well, he enjoyed greater leeway than
after being admitted to the School of Applied
in the framework of the decorative paintings
Arts (1876); these were works that met with the
he executed jointly with Franz Matsch and his
“fullest satisfaction of their commissioners,”
brother Ernst Klimt—beginning in 1880, this trio
and his payment for such sheets was “5 guilders
formed the successful “Künstler-Compagnie”
each.”2 Originally, Klimt was to have become
(Artists’ Company).
a drawing instructor, but after two years, he
Despite their obvious dependence on the
changed his main subject to decorative painting.
art of the past, in particular the Italian High
Even very early on, he was an outstanding
Renaissance, Klimt’s contributions to Allegorien
draftsman: the nudes he produced in class after
und Embleme nonetheless betray an independent,
adult male models and adolescents between 1878
finely differentiated vocabulary of forms and
Gustav Klimt Fairy Tale, 1884 Cat. no. 2.18
lines. In The Realms of Nature (1882; cat. no. 2.2),
this work—previously dated 1882—is consistent
for example, the lord of the animal realm—
with the decorations for the theater in Karlovy
enthroned above the representatives of the plant
Vary (1884–85). Marked by a sharp realism, on
and mineral kingdoms, who sit devotedly feet
the other hand, are two watercolors depicting
at his feet—is reminiscent of Michelangelo’s
the art historian Rudolf von Eitelberger (1885),
ignudi in the Sistine Chapel. More present to
and railway pioneer Julius von Lott (1883) on
the eye, however, is the play of sensitive contour
their death beds—Klimt’s earliest postmortem
lines, refined surface effects, and painstakingly
portraits (cat. nos. 8.1 and 8.2). These works,
coordinated gestures. In the luxuriantly
which have the effect of pendants, may have
decorated frame of the allegory Opera (1883;
been executed around the same time. While
cat. no. 2.16), on the other hand, the music-
Klimt executed the death portrait of Rudolf von
making and eagerly climbing amorettes seem
Eitelberger, which is dated 1885, immediately
more “alive” than the figures of the main
after the subject’s demise, the undated likeness
composition. Klimt planned out the numerous
of Julius von Lott may have been based on a
putti and amorettes that often populate his
deathbed photograph made available by the
historic scenes by means of spontaneously executed linear sketches . The most modern
client.4 Shortly before his death, Rudolf von Eitelberger
allegory of the series is the theatrical scene Fairy
played an important mediating role in relation
Tale (1884; cat. no. 2.18). Klimt stages the fervent
to the largest Viennese commission received by
Oriental storyteller and the exotic nude girl who
the Künstler-Compagnie, the ceiling decorations
nestles up to him as a monumentally contrasting
for the Imperial Kaiserstiege (imperial staircase)
pair. This figure, with her luxuriant, seductively
of the Burgtheater (1886–88), the high point of
displayed form, is the first female nude in his
the successful trio’s career. The museum owns
oeuvre to exercise an unmistakably erotic effect.
a number of detailed studies by Gustav Klimt for
The visionary backdrop with its schematic figural
this project, among them the classically stringent
scenes anticipates Symbolism: in Philosophy
male nude for the The Wagons of Thespis
(1900–07) as well, “real” and imaginary spatial
(cat. no. 3.20). In 1888–89, immediately after
strata interpenetrate.
completion of the Burgtheater paintings, Klimt
A rare watercolor design for a theater curtain,
executed a gouache showing the auditorium
its purpose unknown, is characterized by its
in the old Burgtheater prior to the building’s
rococo-like, brilliant colorism (cat. no. 3.12).
demolition—and commissioned by the city of
In view of the extremely free manner of paint
Vienna (cat. no. 4.1). This bravura piece, which
application, clearly influenced by Hans Makart,
succeeds in capturing a unique moment by
4 On this theme, see Marian BisanzPrakken, “Im Antlitz des Todes: Gustav Klimts ‘Alter Mann auf dem Totenbett,’ ein Porträt Hermann Flöges?,” Belvedere 2, 1 (1996), pp. 20–39.
23
Gustav Klimt Final drawing for a ladies’ gift for the Ball of the City of Vienna, 1892 Cat. no. 3.42
5 On the decisive influence on this work of the Symbolism of Fernand Khnopff and Jan Toorop, see Marian Bisanz-Prakken, “Gustav Klimt und die ‘Stilkunst’ Jan Toorops,” Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Galerie (Klimt-Studien) 22/33, 66–67 (1978–79), pp. 150–53.
presenting the likenesses of some one hundred
executed in charcoal with subtle gold accents,
and fifty individuals from public life in seemingly
occupy a singular position within Klimt’s oeuvre
or pseudo casual attitudes, is as singular within
and within Viennese Modernism. In Junius, the
Klimt’s oeuvre as is the realistic rendering of
profile head of a Roman girl with golden hair
the fully illuminated interior space. Dimensions,
ornaments are flanked by two delicate ancillary
plans, and sketches were entered into a
figures. This composition, characterized by
notebook—which is exhibited here for the first
floral elements and youth symbolism, already
time (cat. no. 4.28). In a lively rhythm of light and
anticipates the “Sacred Spring” of the Secession,
dark, he executed sketches on location showing
founded a year later. Sculpture embodies a
the rows of spectators seated in the boxes and
refined and deliberate confusion between
balconies; wall plans and architectural details are
older and newer art, between cool material and
rendered with energetic parallel hatching lines.
animate substance. Effectively deployed empty
Appearing in early 1892, the year in whose
spaces and carefully calculated fragmentation
course Klimt lost both his father Ernst Sr. and
give it the stamp of modern character—for
his brother Ernst, was a booklet designed as a
instance with the palpably close woman’s head in
gift for ladies attending the Ball of the City of
the foreground, which is cut off by the edge of the
Vienna and containing illustrations by various
picture, heralding modern art, and emphatically
artists—among them Gustav and Ernst Klimt. In
demarcated from the timeless nudity of the main
a small, subtle work in India ink, Klimt depicts the
figure, the latter displayed frontally. With Tragedy,
Japanese figural pair from Gilbert and Sullivan’s
produced during the founding year of the Vienna
opera The Mikado with their, stylized, patterned
Secession (1897), Klimt set the standards for his
kimonos, masklike faces, and frozen gestures;
new monumental style. The forceful frontality of
early Symbolism and modern Japonisme enter
the mesmerizing principal figure and the profile
here into a novel union (cat. no. 3.42).
positioning of the resigned ancillary figures are
After several years of reclusiveness and an
stringently coordinated with one another. The
inner reorientation, Klimt demonstratively
composition is shaped by balanced decorative
declared his commitment to Symbolism through
contrasts between dark and light, between stasis
his contributions to Allegorien: Neue Folge
and mobility, and between empty expanses and
(Allegories: New Series). The famous original for
finely worked linear passages. A new role is
this publication, the oil painting Love (1895;
played by the magic of gestures which, as though
cat. no. 2.19) and the highly polished drawings
directed by a secret power, are integrated into
Junius (1896; cat. no. 2.20), Sculpture (1896;
the tectonics of their surroundings.5
cat. no. 2.22), and Tragedy (1897; cat. no. 2.24), 24
Gustav Klimt Tragedy, 1897 Cat. no. 2.24
As the Secession’s first president, Klimt—
executed with fine blue and red chalk lines, in
together with his like-minded colleagues—
which a special role is played by the enigmatic
propagated the new ideals through graphic
shimmer of the long, downward flowing hair
works executed in the fields of book and poster
(cat. no. 7.2). Another drawing, dated 1897, holds
art. In Klimt’s original design for the poster of
a particular position within Klimt’s achievement:
the first Secession exhibition (March–May 1898),
it features a design for the façade of the Secession
the Greek hero Theseus delivers the death blow
exhibition building (cat. no. 5.5). On both sides of
to the Minotaur (symbol of the “indifferentism”
the entrance, flanked by nude figures, are cursory
of the Viennese public; cat. no. 5.1). Observing
indications of wall decorations. The façade is
the scene is Pallas Athena, tutelary goddess
crowned with the words “Ver Sacrum”—which
of the young association. The genitalia of the
later became the title of the association’s
muscular, nude male figure are just covered by a
epochal journal. There is little doubt that Joseph
fig leaf; nonetheless, the censorship authorities
Maria Olbrich, the architect of the Secession
demanded that this passage be concealed by a
Building, drew inspiration from Klimt’s ideas.
tree trunk in the final version. The ink drawings
During the first, eventful year of the Secession,
Nuda Veritas and Envy, executed in narrow
Klimt was mainly preoccupied with work on the
vertical formats inspired by Japanese models,
three university paintings. In 1894, he and Franz
were reproduced in 1898 in the Secession journal
Matsch were commissioned by the education
Ver Sacrum (cat. nos. 5.11, 5.10). Telling here is
ministry to decorate the ceiling of the university
the contrast between the luminous nude frontal
assembly hall with allegories of the sciences;
figure, whose mirror reflects the light of truth,
Klimt was assigned the subjects philosophy,
and the black garments and emaciated face of
medicine, and jurisprudence. In the wake of his
the staring figure, which serves as an allegory for
turn toward Symbolism, however, he found it
the powers that menace true art.
impossible to approach these existential themes
But the Secession artists did not convey their
in the spirit of a positivist faith in progress. In
new program solely through an assertive
the end, his images were rejected—all three
allegorical pictorial idiom, but also through their
were deemed fatalistic and repellent. But for
oft-articulated avowal of a new “spiritual art,” a
Klimt as a painter and a draftsman, this intensive
6
deeply concealed “world of the artist.” On many
confrontation with the great questions of life,
occasions, Klimt varied the Symbolist type of
all of which would concern him throughout his
the idealized, introverted female profile figure.
career as a whole, was of decisive importance.
An outstanding example is his profile drawing of
In the context of preparations for Philosophy,
a girl bending forward with closed eyes (1898),
the first monumental painting, which was shown
7
6 On the expression “Indifferentismus” (indifferentism), see Carl Moll, “Osterstimmung im Wiener Kunstleben,” Osterbeilage der Wiener Allgemeinen Zeitung (1898). 7 On this topic, Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Heiliger Frühling: Gustav Klimt und die Anfänge der Wiener Secession (Vienna and Munich, 1999), pp. 16–18.
25
Gustav Klimt Design for the building of the Vienna Secession, 1898 Cat. no. 5.5
8 On the fundamental conditions of human life in the graphic works of Klimt, Marian Bisanz-Prakken, “Gustav Klimt’s Drawings,” in Colin B. Bailey, ed., Gustav Klimt: Modernism in the Making, exh. cat. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (Ottawa, 2001), p. 150.
26
at the Secession in 1900, the transfer drawing
and the figure of a father, seen from the back in
executed in 1899 represents a decisive moment
the act of sheltering his family, seems completely
(cat. no. 6.3). Appearing now in place of the
immersed in himself.
diffusely scattered pictorial elements of the
In Medicine, the counterpart to Philosophy, Klimt
previous oil sketch (1897–98) is a cycle of “coming
extends these newly discovered possibilities.
into existence, becoming fertile, and perishing”
Depicted in the densely superimposed yet
taking the form of a fortuitous extract from a
simultaneously isolated figures are all of the
vertical stream of humanity which is projected
nuances of bodily and spiritual suffering. None,
out into the universe. Here, the “world riddle” is
however, represent situations of personal
an oversized sphinx under whose weight the main
suffering, but instead the fundamental conditions
allegorical figure, a thinker from Greek antiquity,
of the life cycle from birth until death; the
seems almost to be crushed. In the final painting,
movements and gestures of the somnambulant
this still-Historicist figure is supplanted by
figures seem to be guided by an invisible hand.
“Knowledge”—a mysterious, frontal woman’s
Correspondingly wide-ranging and diverse are
head with wide-open eyes and closed lips.
the preparatory works in the field of drawing. The
In the context of the university paintings, the
studies of the recumbent, erotically curvaceous
nude human figure is assigned a fundamentally
model for the lascivious main figure hovering
new function: a state of imperfect and even ugly
isolated from the throng seems just as weightless
nakedness becomes the elementary condition
as the drawings of the other figures, all depicted
of a humanity that is exposed to an uncertain
slightly from below: athletic men, dreamy
fate. Through intensive studies of the poses
women, infants, haggard adolescents, or bent
and gestures of each individual figure, Klimt
and crooked old men and women. Most of the
repeatedly explored essential aspects of certain
softly illuminated figures are modeled by means
spiritual moods or life situations.8 He sets the
of detached, accentuated parallel hatching lines,
models who pose for him—men and women, old
at times with the addition of white highlights.
people and children—in essentially vulnerable
Klimt departed radically from this illusion of
states on the pale paper surface, allowing
plasticity and spatiality in his Beethoven Frieze
them to internalize a feeling of directionless
(1901–02), painted in the Secession Building as a
floating; in this way, the contour lines shape the
decoration for the epochal Beethoven exhibition
psychological boundaries between the inner
(April–July 1902). Even in the figural studies, he is
life of the human individual and the surrounding
already oriented toward the stringent geometry
emptiness. An elderly reclining man, for example,
of the exhibition architecture, concentrating
seems to plummet despairingly into nothingness,
almost exclusively on the incisively stylized
Gustav Klimt Seated woman, huddled together, covered in a dark shawl, 1908–09 Study for Family (1909–10) Cat. no. 7.32
contour lines. In one sheet, he assembles
The museum owns various groups of studies
three freely varied women’s heads for the
related to these painting projects. In the drawings
Hostile Forces, thereby forming an autonomous
of nude women executed for Hope I (1903) and
composition; the focus is the demonically glaring, central figure of the three Gorgons, with her wild
Hope II (1907–08), Klimt visualizes the mystery of germinating life.9 In the studies for The Three Ages
hair and cramped fingers (cat. no. 5.24).
of Woman (1905), he focuses on both the physical
Jurisprudence, the third university painting (1903),
as well as the psychic aspects of the life cycle, in
was marked decisively by the monumentality
particular extreme old age. The bent-over woman
and linearism of the Beethoven Frieze. A brittle
figure in the earliest studies for Death and Life
linearity characterizes the studies for the jurists,
(1910–11, reworked in 1916), dating from 1908–09,
prominent among them the imposing half-length
and in the rare watercolor sheet for Family
portrait of a figure with harsh, sculptural facial
(1909–10), give expression to sorrow and
features (cat. no. 6.57). Klimt captures the bent-
melancholy (cat. no. 7.32). A special focus of the
over, haggard figure of the old man—the model
collection is on the studies executed for Water
for the Sinner—with fine, angular lines of black
Snakes I and II (both 1904–07), in which Klimt
crayon; the contours of the studies for the nude
thematizes lesbian love and autoeroticism for the
figure of Veritas, by contrast, display the curving,
first time, rendering them far more revealingly
sensuous quality of the drawings for the Gorgons
than in the paintings; produced in this context
in the Beethoven Frieze.
as well were a number of autonomous sheets. In
Despite various shifts in his style, Klimt would
the group of studies showing walking and reading
always remain essentially faithful to the
models as well as dancers, begun in 1906–07,
innovative drawing practice he developed in
from which the figure Expectation in the Stoclet
the framework of Philosophy and Medicine. As
Frieze would ultimately emerge (1910–11), Klimt
a draftsman, he would devote himself almost
takes up motifs from the Beethoven Frieze. The
exclusively to the individual (and primarily
theme of love between man and woman, a central
female) human figure, whether in the context of
theme for Klimt, was developed in a series of
themes related to life in general, including erotic
studies featuring the highly charged linear idiom
ones, or in the numerous studies for portraits
that was used by the artist at roughly the same
which are present in the collection. In the Golden
time in his preparations for the painting The Kiss
Style allegories produced after Jurisprudence
(1908), the most celebrated work of the Golden
and beyond, Klimt went back to the individual life
Style, and the couple Fulfillment in the Stoclet
themes of the first two university paintings and
Frieze. Beginning with the Beethoven Frieze,
set these in a monumental decorative context.
Klimt began anchoring his figures more securely
9 In an unused study of an old man, dated 1904–05, intended for the orants in Hope II (Strobl no. 1762), Klimt was apparently inspired by George Minne’s sculpture John the Baptist (blue stone, 71 cm, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent); see Bisanz-Prakken, “Gustav Klimt’s Drawings,” 2001, pp. 158–59.
27
than previously in the surface of the paper; he
the numerous studies devoted to this thematic
often allowed them to overlap the edges, so
area is a depiction of a seated woman with
that—whether recumbent or standing—they
a veil-like head covering, closed eyes, folded
seem to exist in a vacuum without beginning or
hands, and bare, opened thighs. In this work, the
end. Drawing now becomes an “art of space”;
dualism between eroticism and asceticism so
each sheet constitutes a world unto itself and
characteristic of Klimt achieves direct expression
is endowed with the character of a creed—
(cat. no. 9.14). This figure as well conveys a
especially in the period of the Golden Style. In all
trancelike not-of-this-world atmosphere of the
phases of Klimt’s activity, his main instrument
type manifested for the first time in the studies
was the perpetually mutating line. Around
for the university paintings under the influence
1903–04, Klimt exchanged soft black crayon
of Symbolism. Klimt’s approach as a draftsman
for a sharp metallic pencil, often supplemented
to existential nakedness, in conjunction with an
with blue and red pencil, the latter utilized
uncompromisingly linear idiom, prepared the way
independently at times. At the same time, there
for Expressionism.
was a transition away from the continuously identical format, based on sheets of packing paper divided into quarters, to a slightly lustrous type of imported Japanese paper in somewhat larger dimensions. The tension between sensuous immediacy and formal discipline, between tangible proximity and metaphysics, so characteristic of Klimt’s studies, was also typical of the drawings from the late years, which are marked by linear freedom; in them, the dominant role is played by female eroticism. Present are a number of studies for two central pictorial undertakings: The Virgin (1913) and The Bride (1917–18, unfinished), in which the typologically highly heterogeneous models are presented with varying degrees of moods of reverie or erotic ecstasy; apart from these studies there are a high number of autonomous sheets. Among 28
Gustav Klimt Upper bodies of an embracing couple, 1904–05 Cat. no. 10.4
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