Gustav Klimt died on 6 February 1918. He did not see the end of the First World War, a turning-point for the whole of Europe. Great European monarchieswere replaced by republics, whilethe Russian revolution gave rise to the world's first communist state. The end of theAustro-Hungarian Empire meant the end of a central European state which had comprised many nations. The Emperor had died in 1916 after a reign of 68 years. When Klimt was born in Vienna in 1862 Emperor Franz Joseph I had already been head of state for 14 years. As a child Klimt experienced the great expansion of Vienna, centre and capital of the dual empire.
Vienna at the turn of the century
A 'total' work of art
The structure of Viennese society
The Emperor's Silver Wedding Jubilee and the Makart pageant
The Ring, and Vienna as a 'total' work of art
Cultural life in Vienna
Jugendstil - art nouveau -
an international movement
Antecedents
England on the way to 'Arts and Crafts'
The development of French painting from Impressionism
to art nouveau
One unifying concept in 'Jugendstil' painting - symbolism
The 'total' work of art
Klimt's early years
Background and training
Hans Makart - Vienna's prince of painters
The 'Company of Artists'
The Burg Theatre ceilings
The murals in the stairway of the Art History Museum
From the Ring to the Secession
The Palais Dumba
Founder-member and president of the
'Vienna Secession'
Conflict among artists
The 'heroic years' of the Secession
Ver Sacrum
The departure of the artists of the new style
Klimt offends public taste
The ceiling pictures in the great hall of the new university
Chronology of events
Designs and completed paintings - a comparison
The Beethoven Frieze
The XlVth exhibition of the Vienna Secession
Max Klinger's Beethoven
Gustav Klimt's Frieze
Emilie FIoge - couturier and companion
The FIoge Sisters' Fashion House
Gustav Klimt and Emilie FIoge
The Vienna Workshops
From foundation to liquidation
Commissions and challenges
The Art Exhibition of 1908
The Palais Stoclet and Gustav Klimt's Frieze
'Woman'
The Portraits
The 'Femme fatale'
'Hope I'
The drawings
'The Kiss' - theme and variations
Landscape painter
Draughtsman
Epilogue - Death and Tribute
Appendix