Gustav Klimt - Virgin | Highlights from the NGP

Gustav Klimt lived from 1862 to 1918. He is an outstanding representative of the Viennese Art Nouveau, the art movement of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Klimt was born not far from Vienna, but his father, a goldsmith and engraver by training, came from Bohemia. The father soon recognized his son´s talent and sent him to study at the Vienna School of Decora-tive Arts.

Klimt’s artistic output first comprised decorative paintings, allegorical compositions, landscapes, and also poster designs. The artist won a number of public commissions – for example, for the Burgtheater and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Nevertheless, the public reception of his work was full of contradictions. On one hand, he was awarded the gold medal at the World’s Fair of 1900 in Paris, on the other hand, in Vienna he was criticised for excessive eroticism. The central theme of Art Nouveau was woman, femme fatale – the fateful woman, her beauty, enigma, uniqueness, but also her deceitfulness and dangerousness. Klimt often shows sensuality and tragedy in his heroines – for example, in his work of 1901, Judith and the Head of Holofernes. Klimt was a sought-after portrait painter and enjoyed success all over Europe. He exhibited in Berlin, Munich, Venice and Rome. In 1914, eleven of his works were shown in Prague.

At this very exhibition our painting Virgin was purchased. It dates to 1913, to the closing phase of Klimt’s artistic production. The artist then began working in the so-called floral style. Decorativeness gave way to a more spiritual expression and bright colours. The painting Virgin assumes quite an exceptional position in Klimt’s work. It renders the central theme of Art Nouveau – a woman, the relationship between beauty and ephemerality, youth and death. In the centre of the composition there is a sleeping virgin in a very relaxed position. Her body is covered with a blanket decorated with flowers and spirals. There is a tangle of female bodies around the virgin in various stages of awakening. We are dealing with an erotically suggestive theme here. Sensuality is manifested through the girl’s peaceful sleep. The virgin is taken captive by her sweet seductive imagination, because she who sleeps is not responsible for her desires. The beautiful girls resignedly float in the time of contentment and bliss, surrounded by darkness heralding the transience of life and death.