Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt

Description

Giclee prints on canvas or paper of Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was born in Vienna, in 1862, into a lower middle-class family of Moravian origin. In 1876, Klimt was awarded a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (Kunstgewerbeschule), where he studied until 1883, and received training as an architectural painter.  After finishing his studies, Klimt opened a studio together with Matsch (friend) and Ernst Klimt (his brother). The trio specialized in interior decoration, particularly theaters. Art historians note an eclectic range of influences contributing to Klimt’s distinct style, including Egyptian, Minoan, Classical Greek, and Byzantine inspirations. Klimt was also inspired by the engravings of Albrecht Dürer, late medieval European painting, and Japanese Rimpa school. His mature works are characterized by a rejection of earlier naturalistic styles, and make use of symbols or symbolic elements to convey psychological ideas and emphasize the “freedom” of art from traditional culture.Klimt’s work is often distinguished by elegant gold or colored decoration, spirals and swirls, and phallic shapes used to conceal the more erotic positions of the drawings upon which many of his paintings are based. This can be seen in Judith I (1901), and in The Kiss (1907-1908), and especially in Danaë (1907). One of the most common themes Klimt used was that of the dominant woman, the femme fatale.