The Painted Kiss History

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was born on July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna. He was the second of seven children. His father was a gold engraver and the family was quite poor. In 1876 he was accepted to the Applied Art School of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry. In subsequent years his brothers Ernst and Georg followed him at the school. Gustav and Ernst Klimt established a partnership with their fellow student Franz Matsch that was quite successful. Perhaps their best known commission was the series of paintings on the history of theater they did for the newly-constructed Burgtheater. The paintings were completed in 1888 and Klimt was awarded the Gold Cross of Merit by Emperor Franz Joseph.

In 1892 Ernst Klimt died, leaving behind a young wife (Emilie Floege's sister Helene) and a daughter. Klimt's partnership with Franz Matsch began to dissolve as his style evolved into something quite different than the academic work that had made his reputation. He and Matsch continued to work together on the commission for the ceiling panels of the Great Hall of the University, which would turn out to be Klimt's most controversial work.

In 1897 Klimt, along with many of his friends, resigned from the artist's organization, the Kunstlerhaus. They founded their own group, the Secession, with Klimt as president. The group's goal was to reinvigorate Austrian art. The Secession published a journal, Ver Sacrum, held exhibitions of foreign as well as local artists, and designed a building to house their exhibitions. Beginning in 1897 Klimt spent every summer with the Floege family at their summer home on Lake Attersee.

The ceiling panels for the Great Hall of the University, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence elicited a tremendous amount of attention in the press, much of it vitriolic. In 1900 the professors at the University voted overwhelmingly to reject them. The controversy continued for years, until Klimt finally resigned his commission in 1905. Klimt was nominated twice to become a professor at the Akademie, but was rejected both times, presumably because of these works.

Throughout his career Klimt painted many portraits of women. Most were members of the wealthy Jewish avant-garde: Serena Lederer, Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein (sister of the philosopher), Adele Bloch-Bauer, and Friederike Maria Beer. For his other, allegorical works he used models from the lower classes, many of whom became his lovers.

In 1902 Klimt exhibited his Beethoven frieze and painted Emilie Floege's portrait. Her family disliked the painting and eventually sold it. In 1904 he painted the Stoclet frieze in the Josef Hoffmann-designed home of a wealthy Belgian businessman. In 1905 he resigned from the Secession. At the Kunstschau 1908 he exhibited The Kiss for the first time.

Klimt had a stroke on January 11, 1918 and died of pneumonia on February 6.