The Errant Æsthete

From around 1900 until is death in 1918, Gustav Klimt dominated the art scene in the capital of the empire of astro-Hungary. The Vienna of Freud, Mahler, Schonberg and Zweig, the Vienna of the great waltzes, the Belle Epoque, a city admired all over the world for its artistic and cultural quality and diversity. One of the pre-eminent cities of Europe and a rival to London and Paris.

Klimt (1862-1918) was a brilliant Austrian iconoclast who rose from an impoverished childhood to become an artist of enormous significance to the Viennese Secession and the art nouveau movement. He primarily produced extravagant paintings and murals that were explicitly sensual, as well as works expressing themes of regeneration, love and death. Klimt was inspired by an eclectic scope of influences, including Egyptian, Classical Greek, Byzantine and Medieval styles. His works often utilized symbolic elements to emphasize the freedom of art from traditional culture. Although numerous works were incomplete when Klimt died, their high asking price was a testament to the thriving legacy he left behind. [Illustrations: "Danae" above; Detail from "The Three Ages of Women" followed by "The Kiss" below]

IKlimt is an evocative, beautifully designed Flash site about the life and work of Gustav Klimt accompanied by the beautiful piano score of Erik Satie. Exquisite.