Klimt the painter

1. Art Nouveau (French for 'new art') is an international style of art,
architecture and design that peaked in popularity at the beginning
of the 20th century (1880-1914) and is characterized by highly-
stylized, flowing, curvilinear designs often incorporating floral and
other plant-inspired motifs.
The name 'Art Nouveau' derived from the name of a shop in Paris,
Maison de l'Art Nouveau, at the time run by Siegfried Bing, that
showcased objects that followed this approach to design. The style
introduced by Bing was not an immediate success in Paris but
rapidly spread to Nancy and to Belgium(especially Brussels) where
Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde would make major
contributions in the field of architecture and design. In the United
Kingdom Art Nouveau developed out of the Arts and Crafts
Movement.

2. • Art Nouveau style is a particular form of
architecture, art and applied art that is based in
organic beauty as opposed to classical,
academic art.

3. • Art Nouveau gained popularity in 1890 and
was heartily embraced until about 1905,
when it fell out of favor. This style of art
was characterized by a belief that all of life
was art, and as a result, all of life should be
treated as an art form. This flew in the face
of classic art, which was reserved for the
wealthy. This new art philosophy was the
art of the people.

4. • Art Nouveau Origins
The Art Nouveau movement began with a
poster created by Alfons Mucha for the
play, Gismonda. The poster Mucha
produced became very popular, and soon a
new art style burst on the scene, inspired by
Mucha's work.

5. • Art Nouveau Elements
You can identify Art Nouveau style art and architecture by looking for some
specific elements.
• Flowing Lines: Art Nouveau is characterized by graceful, sinuous lines. The lines
are rarely angular.
• Violent Curves: Some artists referred to the curves in Art Nouveau works as
whiplash curves. Rhythmic patterns of curvy lines are characteristic of this art style.
These curvy lines connect the images in the art and can even be found in beautified
plain items, such as dishes, eating utensils, hardware and furniture.
• Organic Subject Matter: You'll find plenty of flowers, leaves, vines, grass,
seaweed, insects and other organic images in Art Nouveau jewelry, hardware,
windows and architecture. Examples include images of birds etched into window
frames or curled around each other on fabric for upholstery, or abstract lilies
drifting around and connecting to each other on dinnerware.
• New Materials: Instead of classic gemstones, Art Nouveau jewelers opted to work
with opals and semiprecious stones. Glass art reached a new level of popularity as
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Charles Rennie Mackintosh took interest in the new art
style. Molded glass, animal horns and ivory tusks became commonly used
materials.
• Resistance of Classical Restrictions: Instead of limiting art to painting on a
canvas or sculpting out of marble, Art Nouveau artists and architects looked for
ways to make everyday objects into pieces of art. A doorknocker might be molded
to look like a dragonfly; an entranceway might be graced by vine-like lines in the
molding. You can find a classic example of this by studying the entrances designed
for the Paris Metro by Hector Guimard.

6. • The most recognizable characteristic of Art
Nouveau paintings is the use of curvilinear
form. These paintings exhibited sinewy
lines that seem to move across the canvas.
Think tendrils and vines found in nature.

7. • natural forms are integral to Art Nouveau
painting. The flow and curve of flower
petals, the dramatic height of lean-stemmed
plants and the undulating sweep of
windswept landscapes are inspirational to
the Art Nouveau style. But these forms are
expressed in the abstract; realism is the
influence of Art Nouveau but is not the goal
in representation.

8. • Symbolist art was influential on Art
Nouveau painters. Though you need not
search out the symbolic meaning of
elements in an Art Nouveau painting to
appreciate it, understanding that the
distortions of reality (such as elongated
figures) are representative of cultural mores
does aid in identifying the style.

9. • natural elements, particularly flowers, and
beautiful women were dominant elements in
Art Nouveau paintings. Both women (and
men) and flowers were exaggerated in form.
Gustav Klimt’s paintings best represent this
characteristic. His now iconic “The Kiss” is
quintessential Art Nouveau painting.

10. • Art Nouveau painters were also influenced
by Asian art and specifically Japanese art.
The clean lines combined with intricate
scrollwork common to Japanese art are
easily recognizable in the Art Nouveau
style.

11. Vase, ca. 1885
Maker: Olivier de Sorra;
Factory: Pierrefonds
French (Pierrefonds)
Stoneware

12. Hanging
cabinet, ca.
1890
Émile Gallé
(French, 1846–
1904)
French
(Nancy)
Beechwood,
various
marquetry
woods

13. Painted in Chicago in 1909, this picture
depicts the American actress Maude Adams
in the role of Joan of Arc in Schiller's Die
Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of
Orleans), which she performed in translation
on June 21, 1909, at Harvard University
Stadium. The portrait was made specifically
for the one-night gala performance of the
play at Harvard and was displayed as a
poster for the event. Mucha also designed the
costumes and sets and supervised the
direction. Afterwards, at the actress' request,
the painting served as the lobby poster for
the Empire Theater in New York, where
Adams regularly performed. The ornate
gilded frame was designed by Mucha for that
purpose.

16. art nou·veau –noun (often initial capital letters )
Fine Arts. a style of fine and applied art current in
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized
chiefly by curvilinear motifs often derived from
natural forms.
GUSTAVE KLIMT

17. The work of the Austrian painter and illustrator Gustav Klimt, b.
July 14, 1862, d. Feb. 6, 1918, founder of the school of painting
known as the Vienna Secession, embodies the high-keyed erotic,
psychological, and aesthetic preoccupations of turn-of-the-century
Vienna's dazzling intellectual world.
He has been called the preeminent exponent of ART NOUVEAU.

18. Gustav Klimt
Art Nouveau style

19. “I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the
written word, especially if I have to say
something about myself or my work. Whoever
wants to know something about me -as an artist,
the only notable thing- ought to look carefully at
my pictures and try and see in them what I am
and what I want to do."
-Gustav Klimt

20. Emilie Floge ,1902
Emilie
Floge
standing
hand on
hip, in a
dress that
she
designed.

21. Mother and Child

22. Bildnis
Fritza
Riedler
1906

23. Adele
Bloch-
Bauer

24. The
Kiss
 Only the faces
and hands of
this couple are
visible.
 The rest is
great swirl of
gold, studded
with colored
rectangles.

25. Tree of
Life
 There is a vast amount of
detail in this painting.
 Notice the “Egyptian eye”
sprouting from the
branches.
 There are triangles,
swirls, and circles within
circles.
 The colors intensify as
you get at the flower
garden on the ground.

26. The Kiss
Year 1907 – 08
Format180 x 180 cm
Technique Oil on
canvas
Location Vienna,
Osterreichische
Museum für
Angewandte Kunst
Mrs. G’s personal
favorite!

27. Mäda Primavesi
(1903–2000), 1912
Gustav Klimt
(Austrian, 1862–
1918)
Gift of André and Clara
Mertens, in memory of her
mother, Jenny Pulitzer Steiner,
1964 (64.148)

28. Hope, II. 1907-
08.
Gustav Klimt.
(Austrian,
1862-1918). Oil,
gold, and platinum
on canvas, 43 1/2 x
43 1/2" (110.5 x
110.5 cm). Jo Carole
and Ronald S.
Lauder, and Helen
Acheson Funds, and
Serge Sabarsky

29. Hope,II
A pregnant woman bows her head and closes her eyes, as if praying for the
safety of her child. Peeping out from behind her stomach is a death's head,
sign of the danger she faces. At her feet, three women with bowed heads
raise their hands, presumably also in prayer—although their solemnity might
also imply mourning, as if they foresaw the child's fate.
Why, then, the painting's title? Although Klimt himself called this work Vision,
he had called an earlier, related painting of a pregnant woman Hope. By
association with the earlier work, this one has become known as Hope, II.
There is, however, a richness here to balance the women's gravity.
Klimt was among the many artists of his time who were inspired by sources
not only within Europe but far beyond it. He lived in Vienna, a crossroads of
East and West, and he drew on such sources as Byzantine art, Mycenean
metalwork, Persian rugs and miniatures, the mosaics of the Ravenna
churches, and Japanese screens. In this painting the woman's gold-patterned
robe—drawn flat, as clothes are in Russian icons, although her skin is
rounded and dimensional—has an extraordinary decorative beauty. Here,
birth, death, and the sensuality of the living exist side by side suspended in
equilibrium.

30. Gustav Klimt
Baby (Cradle), 1917/1918
Gift of Otto and Franciska Kallir with the help of the Carol and Edwin Gaines Fullinwider Fund
1978.

31. Detail of Baby (Cradle)

32. Portrait of Eugenia
Primavesi
1913-1914
Klimt, GustavOil on canvas
140 x 85 cm
Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Toyota
City, Japan

33. Adele Bloch-Bauer I 1907
Oil and gold on canvas, 138 x 138; Austrian Gallery,
Vienna
Adele Bloch-Bauer clasping her hands (she had a
deformed finger). Dressed in gold, surrounded by
gold. A very gold picture.

34. The
Maiden
1912 - 13

35. “I have the gift of neither the spoken nor the written
word, especially if I have to say something about
myself or my work. Whoever wants to know
something about me -as an artist, the only notable
thing- ought to look carefully at my pictures and try
and see in them what I am and what I want to do."
Gustav Klimt

36. Water Serpent I
1904-07
Judith I
1901

37. Medicine (Hygieia)
1900 – 07
Format 430 x 300 cm
Technique Oil on canvas
Location Burned in Schlob Immendorf,
Austria, 1945

40. Alphonse Mucha
1860 - 1939

41. 1860
• Born at Ivancice in
South Moravia, near the
city of Brno in the
modern Czech
Republic.
• Early years: a choirboy
and amateur musician

42. Early Years
• 1871 Gains a
choral scholarship
to the Church of St
Peter in Brno, the
capital of Moravia.
• 1875 Returns to
Ivancice. His father
finds him work as a
court clerk.
• 1878 Applies to the
Prague Academy of Fine
Arts. His application is
turned down with the
recommendation: "Find
yourself another
profession where you'll
be more useful".
• 1879 Goes to Vienna to
work as a scene painter
for the firm of Kautsky-
Brioschi-Burghardt.

43. 1881 1883
• Leaves Vienna after
being laid off when his
employer's best
customer, the
Ringtheater, burns down
in a fire.
• Goes to Mikulov where
he earns a living by
painting portraits.
• Meets Count Khuen
Belasi who commissions
him to decorate his
castle at Emmahof.
• Moves to Castle
Gandegg, Tyrol, where
Count Khuen's brother,
an amateur artist,
becomes Mucha's
patron.

45. Academics
• 1885 Begins studies at
the Munich Academy of
Art, sponsored by
Count Khuen's brother.
• 1887 Moves to Paris to
study at the Academie
Julian, still under the
Count's sponsorship.
• 1888 Leaves the
Academie Julian and
becomes a student at
the Academie
Colarossi.
• 1889 The Count's
sponsorship ends.
Leaves the Academie
Colarossi and seeks
work as an illustrator.

47. Paris
1890 Moves to a studio
above Madame Charlotte's
cremerie at rue de la Grande
Chaumiere. Begins to
illustrate a theatre magazine,
Le Costume au theatre, in
which his first drawing of
Sarah Bernhardt as
Cleopatra appears.
• 1891 Meets Paul Gauguin at
Madame Charlotte's before
his journey to Tahiti.
• Begins work for the publisher
Armand Colin, a main source
of income.
• 1892 Commissioned by Colin
to illustrate Scenes et
Episodes de l'Histoire
d'Allemagne by Charles
Seignobos
• 1893 Gaugin returns from
Tahiti and shares Mucha's
studio in rue de la Grande
Chaumi
• 1894 Designs his first poster
for Sarah Bernhardt,
Gismonda, a play by
Victorien Sardou

48. Morning Awakening Light of Day Evening Reverie

49. 1895
• The poster Gismonda appears
in Paris.
• Mucha signs a 5 year contract
with Sarah Bernhardt to
produce stage, costume
designs, and posters.
• The firm of Champenois begins
to publish Mucha's posters
• Meets August Strindberg at
Madame Charlotte's.
• Participates in the Lumiere
brothers' cinematographic
experiments, including a study
of plant movements.

50. 1896
• Moves to a new
studio at rue du Val-
de-Grâce.
Champenois
publishes Mucha's
first decorative
panneaux, The
Seasons

51. 1897: Exhibitions
• One man exhibition at
the Bodiniere Gallery,
Paris, showing 107
works.
• One man exhibition at
the Salon des Cent,
showing 448 works.
• A special issue of La
Plume devoted to it.
• One man exhibition at
the Topic Gallery in
Prague

52. Recognition
• 1915 Mucha's son Jiri is born
• 1918 The independent state of
Czechoslovakia is created. Mucha designs
postage stamps and banknotes
• 1919 The first eleven canvases of the Slav
Epic are exhibited at the Klementinum in
Prague and then sent to be exhibited in
America
• 1921 Successful exhibition of Mucha's work at
the Brooklyn Museum, New York

53. • 1928 The complete
cycle of the Slav Epic
is officially presented
to the Czech people
and the City of
Prague at the city's
Trade Fair Palace.
• 1934 Promoted to
Officier of the Légion
d'Honneur by the
French Government.
• 1936 A joint exhibition
of works by Mucha
and Kupka is held at
the Musée du Jeu de
Paume in Paris.
Mucha shows 139
works.

55. Late Years
• 1938 Begins to work on the triptych The Age of
Reason, The Age of Wisdom and The Age of
Love.
• 1939 Mucha is among the first to be arrested
by the Gestapo when the Germans invade
Czechoslovakia. On 14th July, Mucha dies in
Prague. He is buried at Vysehrad cemetery.
Despite the Nazis banning the public from his
funeral, over 100,000 Czechs attend.