Gustav Klimt

From Conservapedia

Gustav Klimt (Vienna 1862 - Vienna 1918) Austrian Art Nouveau painter.

In 1893, he painted three artworks: Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence, for the University of Vienna. Later came Love (1895), Music (1895) and Junius (1896). At the end of the century Klimt produced the beautiful portraits that would be one of his greatest legacies.

The Kiss, created in 1907-08, is a monument to love and one of Klimt's most transcendent images. Only the faces and hands of this couple are visible; all the rest is great swirls of gold, as if to express the loss of self that lovers experience. ^[1]

According to press reports, in June 2006, the portrait Adele Bloch-Bauer I was sold for US$135 million to Ronald S. Lauder. Since that time, the painting has been on display at the Neue Galerie in New York City (at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street). This operation has made this Klimt's work the most expensive painting ever sold.

...the painting itself is made of luxury materials. Under the joint inspiration of Japanese lacquer and the Byzantine mosaics he'd studied in Ravenna, Italy, Klimt, son of an engraver in precious metals, applied generous expanses of gold and silver leaf directly onto the canvas. The result is that Adele's head and hands seem to float in an entirely artificial world... ^[2]

Petite Gallery