Bauerngarten mit Sonnenblumen

1897–1917

Society portraits of Viennese ladies

Over twenty years Klimt painted nearly twenty society portraits of women, which gave him financial independence; Carl Moll introduced him to many of the sitters, most of them from the Jewish upper bourgeoisie. In the portraits the ladies are hidden in sumptuous clothing, their heads and hands seeming to float detached from reality.

1900–1907

He returns the advance and keeps the paintings

The state commission refused to accept the three “Faculty Paintings”; Klimt told the minister he would return the 60,000-krone advance, refused to work for the Austrian state again and kept the pictures. The ministry demanded them, but Klimt did not open the door to the removal men — and the affair ended in his victory.

1905

Klimt and his group leave the Secession

Klimt and his “stylist” followers, who held that art should enter every sphere of life, fell out with the “naturalists”; the decision against Klimt's group was carried by a single vote. For the next three years the group had no joint exhibitions.

1906

The “Kunstschau” group

A year after the split Klimt formed the “Kunstschau” group, or “Klimt group”, which included Carl Moll, Otto Wagner and other leading Austrian artists.

1908

Klimt defends Kokoschka

The public and critics fell on the debutant Oskar Kokoschka so fiercely that the scandal of the “Faculty Paintings” came to mind; Klimt did not turn away from his pupil and defended his place in the show even if it were to be closed. Hevesi granted him talent but denied him taste; Klimt replied that art has nothing to do with taste.

1 June – 16 November 1908

The first Vienna Art Show

For the sixtieth anniversary of Franz Joseph's reign pavilions with 54 rooms were built on a temporary site and over 900 works shown. Room 22, which Peter Altenberg called “the church of modern art named after Gustav Klimt”, held “The Kiss”, “Adele Bloch-Bauer I”, “Danaë” and “The Three Ages of Woman”.