“To speak the truth is to shine and burn,” Gustav Klimt inscribed on an early version of his provocative Nuda Veritas. Across time and distance—from Vienna’s Belle Époque to our own second Gilded Age—Klimt’s masterworks have never lost their luster.
Born in the Austrian Empire in 1862 and trained in the academic tradition, Klimt spearheaded the Vienna Secession at the turn of the century, declaring independence from the strictures of genre and school. Klimt’s personal vision culminated in a “golden phase” of portraits and allegories, rendered in lifelike scale and adorned with mesmerizing facets of gold leaf and pigment. The son of a goldsmith, the artist’s fascination with the shimmery hue was fueled by many influences.
In the decades since the artist’s death in 1918, his paintings have commanded some of the highest prices ever paid for individual works of art, led by Water Serpents II (1904–1907), which sold to Russian fertilizer mogul Dmitry Rybolovlev for $184 million in 2013.
Comprising hundreds of paintings and thousands of works on paper, Klimt’s oeuvre is as wide-ranging as it is radiant. Here are 10 of our favorite pieces to ignite your exploration.
10. Pine Forest II (1901)
One of Klimt’s least showy compositions, the tiny glints of light it reveals are nothing short of magical. While Klimt is best known for his gold-inflected portraits, he painted many luminous landscapes, as well.
9. Jurisprudence (1899–1907)
Known only through black-and-white photographs since its destruction or disappearance circa 1945, the psychosexual power of this underworldly scene is not lost on us. The painting was one of the artist’s three paintings for the University of Vienna, along with Medicine and Philosophy.
8. Lake Attersee (1900)
In this underrated, quietly luminous seascape, Klimt pushes painterly abstraction to a new and daring level.
7. Death and Life (1908–1911)
The artist could not have foreseen the carnage of the Great War or the influenza pandemic that would claim 50 million souls including his own—yet he chose to reverse life and death’s customary order of precedence.
6. Water Serpents I (1904–1907)
The figures’ shimmering scales offer plausible deniability that this painting depicts same-sex love, 70 years before its decriminalization in Austria.
5. Nuda Veritas (1899)
At once a familiar classical allegory and a radical confrontation, this painting boldly asserts that “to please everyone is bad.”
4. Judith and the Head of Holofernes (1901)
Unlike Caravaggio’s treatment of this biblical episode, Klimt focuses on the heroine herself rather than her violent act. Judith, for instance, depicts the ancient Jewish heroine, not in the violent physicality of her altercation with Holofernes, but in a pose of unbridled sensual conquest.
3. Beethoven Frieze (1901–1902)
This monumental work, painted directly on the walls of the Secession Building in Vienna, deftly borrows from Byzantine mosaics and Japanese woodblock prints to evoke the splendor of Beethoven’s final symphony.
2. Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1903–1907)
The centerpiece of a Supreme Court case, a record-shattering sale via Christie’s, and a biopic starring Helen Mirren and Ryan Reynolds, it is still impossible to overhype this paragon of Klimt’s ‘golden phase.’
1. The Kiss (1907–1908)
This icon of Art Nouveau dynamism and dazzle was savvily purchased fresh off the easel by the Austrian government, and it remains one of the country’s most visited attractions—and one of the most beloved paintings in the world. The painting, which was created in the aftermath of a scandal, is rich with fascinating details.
Find out more about Klimt’s life and work, plus upcoming exhibitions and auctions.
