Gustav Klimt lived in the Vienna of this time, a society where the ideals of a few existed alongside the not so idealistic reality of the many. Klimt came from a family of seven children born to Ernst Klimt and Anna Finster. Ernst was an engraver in gold and silver and supported his family in a modest fashion; often in one room lodgings, which were frequently vacated whenever the rent could not be paid. Gustav spent eight years at the Vienna City School and at the age of fourteen attained his leaving certificate. He then proceeded to sit the entrance exam for the School of Arts and Crafts. Franz Matsch sat this same exam and both students qualified. Klimt's younger brother Ernst was accepted the following year and these three young men went on to form a commercially viable partnership (S. Patsch,1989:44).
The Railway Group 1879, lithograph after Hans Makart, Vienna (Fischer,1990:17)
Kurhaus Building Today
In 1880 the Kunstlercompagnie, the name the Klimt's and Matsch had decide upon, were contracted by a Viennesse firm of architects whose speciality was designing theatres throughout the hapsburg Empire, the Balkans and Germany. They were to produce four paintings representing poetry, music, dance and the theatre to decorate the corners of the boardroom in the headquarters of a paper manufacture in Vienna (F. Whitford,1990:39). In the same year this firm also commissioned the painting, the Music of the Nations, for the ceiling of the Kurhaus at Karlsbad. The decoration of the theatre spaces became a successful business venture and include theatres in Reichenbach, Fiume, Bucharest and Karlsbad.
Burgtheater, Vienna (F. Novotny,1968:241)
click to reveal Klimt's painting of the interior of the old Burgtheatre, 1888
In 1888, Klimt and Matsch were commissioned to paint two interior views of the old Burgtheatre before it was demolished. The new Burgtheatre had already been erected in the Ringstrasse. Klimt's view was from the stage and portrayed the theatre going society of Vienna, in one hundred and fifty miniature portraits. Identifiable faces include the Prime Minister, the mayor, the composers Brahms and Goldmark and the Emperor's mistress, Katherina Schratt, an actress. The Kompagnie also contributed five paintings to the ceilings of the two main staircases of the new Burgtheatre. These decorations had to represent predetermined aspects of the history of world theatre. At this time the styles of each artist were so similar that it is difficult to determine whom it was responsible for the individula works, eventhough each artist undertook their own paintings (W. Hofman, 1971:11).
The Globe Theatre in London, 1868-88
Gustav Klimt painted a scene from a classical Greek drama, a reference to a medieval Mystery play and the death scene from Romeo and juliet in an Elizabethan setting. He has included his one and only self portrait in this work, appearing on the right in the audience with his brother Ernst and Franz matsch. It is interesting to note the way that Klimt combines the audience and the stage within the picture frame after the perspective ha has applied within the interior of the old Burgtheatre. The inclusion of the viewer and the viewed and the viewer as the viewed, seem to reveal some thought on Klimt's part as to the similarities of the role's of both. Werner Hofman comments on this aspect of the play within the play and points out the "common theatrical conciousness" (W. Hofman,1971:20) of the Viennesse theatre patrons who were just as serious about the roles they played and the costumes they wore as were the actors upon the stage.
Spandrels of the Kunsthistoriche Museum
click for detail of Girl from Tanagara and Pallas Athena
The German critic, Frederich Pecht wrote of Klimt as Makart's "heir" (F. Novotny, 1968:380) and it was Klimt and his Company of Artists who continued Makar's decoration of the Kunsthistoriches Museum in Vienna. The commission assigned to Klimt included eight spandrels and three intercolumnar panels above the staircase. these panels were to span the history of art from ancient Egypt to florence of the Cinquecento (A. Comini,1968:21).
From 1890 to 1891 Klimt paints a set of eleven personifications including an egyptian mummy, a Greek goddess, an angel and a child set in their respective archaeological backgrounds. It is here that his contemporary "femme fatale' figure emerges as does his method of combining painterly and linear forms (Novotny,1968:21). This combination of naturalistic and purely decorative form produces a trompe l'oeil effect when seen in the architectural frame. the Gir from Tanagara peeks from behind a column giving one the impression of a cheeky Viennesse coquette. Pallas Athena has been executed in a more historical vein and both paintings are treated to an abundant supply of decorative designs. Fabrics are an exercise in colour and pattern and linear details are prevalent in all of Klimt's backgrounds. The similarities in style which had made it hard to distinguish the three in the decoration of the Burgtheatre are no longer evident and they were now enjoying great success as the Kunstlercompagnie (Whitford,1990:44). Sadly in the wake of this success Ernst Klimt died at the end of 1892 and Matsch moved out of the studio they had occupied as a trio, leaving Gustav on his own.
The paintings for the Museum were so well received that the Artistic Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Education asked Matsch to submit designs for the decoration of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna. At this time Klimt and the later had gone their separate ways. But the sketches from Matsch were rejected and consequently Klimt was asked to become involved. Klimt began to paint the first of three allegorical works signifying the secular faculties of the University in 1899.
Philosophy
These paintings are mergings of naturalistic forms, symbolism and a use of line that creates a flowing phantasmagoria of human bodies. A contemporary description taken from Die Kunst fur Alle, Munich 1900 and quoted in Werner Hofman's, Gustav Klimt of 1971 relays the ahistorical content of a work commissioned on the basis of successful allegorical paintings.
Those who are the subject of philosophy appear as anapathetic mass, swept along in the service of endless procreation, for better for worse, in a sort of dream, from the first stirrings of life to the final exhausted descent into the grave. In between lies a brief illusion of loving union and a long, painful drifting apart. Love proves a disappointment, bringing neither true happiness nor illumination. Yet life goes on in the same way. Far removed from the cold certainties of science, far from the veiled mysteries of the universe, mankind struggles for happiness and enlightenment, yet always remains a mere instrument in the hands of nature, which uses it for its own unvarying purpose, procreation.
Philosophy was described in a petition signed by the University professors as a painting of "nebulous ideas in a nebulous form" and a poor illustration of the triumph of light over darkness. The other two paintings were received in a similar fashion.
composition study for Medicine 1897-1898 (Comini,1975:pl.19)
click for detail of painting
The nudes in Medicine caused a great scandal what with the "personification of Austria converted by Klimt into a floating female figure seen from the provocative below perspective...(quote)its writhing column of interwoven bodies; both male and female.
Jurisprudence 1903-1907 (Comini,1975:pl.59)
The third painting, Jurisprudence relegates the symbols of justice to the background and it is the three furies in the centre of the composition which appear to control the strangling creature of the law. Gerbert Frodl has interpreted this work as an angry reaction against the condemnation directed at the previous paintings and regards the figure in pergatory as a self representation on Klimt’s part.image: jurisprudenceIn 1904 Klimt resigned his commission and in April of 1905 told the Ministry of Education that he was not prepared to relinquish ownership of the three paintings. He returned all advance payments and soon after the Minister of Education resigned.
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