TIMELINE
Gustav Klimt is born on 14 July 1862 in Baumgarten, then a suburb of Vienna, the son of Anna and Ernst Klimt.
The family relocates no less than six times during his schooling. He meets Franz Matsch (1861–1942) at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, now the University of Applied Arts Vienna, where Klimt’s brothers Ernst (1864–1892) and Georg (1867–1931) also study.
Klimt is engaged as an employee for the opulent parade to celebrate the silver wedding anniversary of the Austrian Emperor and Empress, Franz Joseph I and Elisabeth.
Gustav Klimt gets his first own studio. He paints landscapes (Quiet pond in the park of Appeal, Forest floor, In the middle of the forest) and numerous portraits, mostly commissions and miniatures.
Founding of the company of artists (Künstler-Compagnie) with brother Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch. The group moves into a new studio in Vienna and works together on various commissions until 1892.
The young Künstler-Compagnie receives the prestigious commission to decorate various new theatres in different parts of the wide-reaching Habsburg Empire (Rijeka, Karlovy Vary and Bucharest). In Vienna, they design parts of the imperial Hermesvilla palace and the ceilings of the staircases of the imperial-royal Hofburgtheater in Vienna. Klimt is awarded the Golden Order of Merit.
Klimt receives the imperial prize for the painting The auditorium in the old Burgtheater, amounting to 400 ducats, around 20,000 euros today. Klimt moves to a new studio in the Josefstadt district of Vienna, where he will paint his most important works over the next fifteen years. The Klimt family meets the Flöge family for the first time.
Frescoes for the staircases in the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien museum of art history. Admission to the Genossenschaft bildender Künstler Wiens, a Viennese association of visual artists; Klimt’s social status improves. Ernst Klimt marries Helene Flöge (1871–1936). First contact with Emilie Flöge (1874–1952).
Death of his father in July and brother Ernst in December. Klimt becomes guardian of his niece Helene “Lentschi” (1892–1980). Dissolution of the Künstler-Compagnie group. Artistic crisis and reorientation.
Gustav Klimt receives the silver medal for the painting The auditorium of the theatre at Esterházy Palace in Tata. Klimt is recommended as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, but his appointment is prevented. The position goes to the Polish artist Kasimir Pochwalski (1855–1940).
Commission for the Faculty Paintings for the ceiling of the Great Hall at the University of Vienna. Klimt designs the allegorical images Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence; Matsch was responsible for Theology and the large central image. Klimt completes his paintings only in 1907 – it was to be his last public sector commission and generated a furore. Relocation with his mother and two unmarried sisters.
Gustav Klimt is commissioned to design the music room at Palais Dumba on the Vienna Parkring with the overdoor images Music and Schubert at the piano. First known correspondence with Emilie Flöge from 16 February and summer holiday together with the Flöge family and Klimt in Langenwang in Styria. Gustav Klimt becomes a member of the board of trustees of the Society for reproductive art (Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst).
Gustav Klimt is a founding member of the Vienna Secession and becomes its first president until 1899. At the same time, he leaves the Vienna association of visual artists (Genossenschaft bildender Künstler Wien). He spends the summer with Emilie Flöge and her sisters in Fieberbrunn in Tyrol. Gustav Klimt makes his first sketches for the future Secession Building. The first known correspondence with model and lover Marie “Mizzi” Zimmermann (1879–1975) takes place on 18 November.
Klimt is appointed corresponding member of the Munich Secession in their 6 September meeting. Summer holiday in St. Agatha in Salzkammergut, Austria; the first portrait format landscapes are painted. Opening of the second Secession exhibition (12 November to 28 December) in the new Secession Building, close to the Naschmarkt, designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867–1908). Klimt is now a portraitist for Viennese high society.
Summer holiday in Golling, Salzburg, Austria. Klimt’s landscape paintings are now painted only in a square format. First known correspondence with Maria Ucicka (1880–1928) on 12 June. In July, Gustav Ucicky (1899–1961), the son of Gustav Klimt and Maria Ucicka, is born. In September, Gustav Zimmermann (1899–1976), the son of Gustav Klimt and Marie Zimmermann, is born.
Exhibition of the Faculty Painting Philosophy at the Secession. While the painting causes a scandal in Vienna, it receives a gold medal at the world’s fair in Paris. First summer holiday at Attersee with the Flöge family. From this point on, Attersee becomes his regular summer residence until 1916; until 1907 he spends his time at the Bräuhof guest house in Litzlberg.
Renewed criticism and outrage about the Faculty Paintings. Klimt’s professorship at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna is rejected once more.
Presentation of the 34-metre-long Beethoven Frieze to celebrate the 14th exhibition of the Vienna Secession. Otto, the second illegitimate son of Gustav Klimt and Marie Zimmermann, is born. However, he dies the same year.
Commission for the Stoclet Frieze at Palais Stoclet in Brussels. The Palais, completed in 1910/1911, represents the synthesis of work from the Wiener Werkstätte artists’ collective. Emilie Flöge opens the Schwestern Flöge fashion salon at Casa Piccola in Vienna.
After numerous scandals and public outcries about his Faculty Paintings, Klimt decides to pay back the advance he had received from the state and to keep the paintings for himself.
The garden of the Mayrs’ yard is the backdrop for Klimt’s series of photos of Emilie Flöge. Selected photographs are reproduced in the magazine German art and decoration (Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration) in 1906/1907. Gustav Klimt becomes president of the newly founded Austrian artists’ association (Österreichische Künstlerbund).
Klimt provides fifteen erotically daring drawings to illustrate Franz Blei’s (1871–1942) German translation of the ancient Hetairikoi Dialogoi by Lucian of Samosata. It is perhaps the most beautiful example of European art nouveau. Exhibition of the Faculty Paintings in Berlin.
The Klimt Group holds the first Kunstschau in Vienna, an art show on the site of what will later be the Wiener Konzerthaus concert hall. The Austrian government purchases Klimt’s golden masterpiece, The Kiss. Trips to France, Spain and Czechoslovakia.
Exhibitions in Munich, Berlin, Vienna and Prague. Participation in the ninth Venice Biennale.
First prize for the painting Death and life at the international art show in Rome. Through Felix Albrecht Harta (1884–1967), Klimt moves to his final studio a few months later. Gustav (1911–1989), the first child of Klimt and Consuela Camilla “Ella” Huber (1896–1978), is born. Gustav Klimt would go on to have three children total with his lover and model.
Charlotte (d. 1915), the daughter of Klimt and Consuela Camilla Huber, is born. Klimt finds out that World War I has broken out while on his summer holiday at Attersee. In contrast to the younger artists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, Klimt is not conscripted. Death of Klimt’s mother Anna in February 1915. Consuela Camilla Huber’s second son with Gustav Klimt, Wilhelm (d. 1943), is born. Klimt paints at least five paintings, some of which remain unfinished: various views of Unterach am Attersee, Garden path with hens, Garden landscape with mountain top (parish garden), Apple tree II and his only Viennese subject, Schönbrunn Landscape. In July 1917, Klimt writes the poem The water rose, probably dedicated to Emilie Flöge.
Following complications from a stroke, Gustav Klimt dies on 6 February. Three days later, he is buried in Hietzing Cemetery. Egon Schiele draws the deceased on his deathbed and tries to take over his last studio in Feldmühlgasse, but dies of the Spanish flu in the same year. The paintings The bride and Woman with fan are left unfinished on their easels.