Gustav Klimp (1862-1918) Austrian, offset lithograph female nude. Signed lower right.

Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 in.

Sight: 10 x 6 3/4 in.

#2435

Gustav Klimt (July 14th, 1862 - February 6th, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d’art. Klimt’s primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods. Early in his career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. As he began to develop a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his “golden phase,” many of which include gold leaf. Klimt’s work was an important influence on his younger peer Egon Schiele. Fathering at least fourteen children and considered tremendously progressive in his approach to sexuality, race, and politics, his legacy was cut short due to pneumonia he contracted during the worldwide influenza epidemic that killed roughly 50 million people. Among his most famous pieces are "The Kiss" and "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I," which exemplify his innovative approach to blending fine art with decorative elements. Klimt's work not only reflects the opulent and turbulent spirit of fin-de-siècle Vienna but also left an indelible mark on the development of modern art.