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The latest painting completed by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt became the most expensive work of art ever for sale, fetching £85.3 million ($108.4 million or 885 crores) at Sotheby’s sale in London on Tuesday night (June 27). European auction.
It was found on an easel in his studio in Vienna when he died in 1918, with the working title Lady with a fan (Lady with Fan) depicts a faceless woman in a kimono and is painted in the artist’s well-known Rich Expressionist style, which also borrowed from Chinese motifs and has patterns influenced by Japanese woodblocks. The auction reportedly lasted 10 minutes, and the work was finally sold to a collector in Hong Kong.
Previously, a 1961 bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti The man who walks meAttaining £65 million in 2010, it was the most expensive work ever sold at auction in Europe. The sale of Klimt’s work on 27 June also set a new record for the artist – Which was the previous auction’s $104.6 million record birch forestwhich sold out last year in New York. We look at the life and art of the Austrian icon.
His legacy and the famous golden age
Considered one of the greatest decorative painters of the 20th century, Klimt oil on canvas (1907-08) Kiss, with two lovers in an embrace, is arguably among the most famous works of art. He was a pioneer in the Art Nouveau movement – An ornamental and decorative style that flourished in the West in the late nineteenth century – and co-founder and first president of the Vienna Secession, founded in 1897, to urge artists to break away from classical patterns and rules.
The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. (via Wikimedia Commons)
Although he produced academic paintings, vivid drawings, and decorative art objects, some of his most famous works probably belong to his Golden Phase, which lasted from the late 1890s to 1909 and was influenced by his trip to Ravenna, Italy, where he was fascinated by the shimmering details of Byzantine art. Back in Vienna, the artist began the bold use of gold with ornamental details in works such as Pallas Athene (1898) depicting the Greek goddess Athena.
Include some famous works from this period KissAnd Photo by Adele Bloch-Bauer I And Judith and Chief Holofernesall generously using gold leaf.
Adele Bloch-Bauer I uses gold leaf. (via Wikimedia Commons)
While he mentored artists such as Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka, his experiences influenced generations of artists in a variety of ways. His pioneering frescoes that also advocated the combination of art and architecture influenced the Bauhaus and the Russian constructivists.
Who is Gustav Klimt?
Although in the public eye with the esteem he received during his lifetime, Klimt did not like discussing his personal life or work. He is reported to have once said: “I am convinced that I am not a particularly interesting person. There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day in and day out from morning till night.”
He was born in 1862 in Vienna, his mother Anna dreamed of becoming a conductor, and his father Ernst was a gold engraver. Born second with six siblings, his family struggled financially but his father recognized the artistic talents of Klimt and his two brothers, Ernst and Georg.
At the age of 14, Klimt gained admission to the prestigious Vienna School of Arts and Crafts, where he studied a range of subjects, including mural painting and mosaics, and spent hours in Vienna’s museums, studying the master’s works. To supplement their finances, Ernst and Klimt also drew portraits from photographs and made technical drawings for the ear specialist.
his many inspirations
Klimt received decorative commissions early in his career, including for frescoes and ceiling paintings for theaters and public buildings throughout Austria, and his frescoes at the Burgtheater in Vienna attracted considerable attention. She was awarded the Golden Order of Merit by Emperor Franz Joseph in 1888.
Inspired by the painter Hans Makart, he often experimented with human forms, and in his twenties saw him lean towards the Viennese avant-garde, rejecting traditional methods that supported classicism, rationalism, and naturalism. The death of his father and his brother Ernst in 1892 marked a turning point in his life and his art, and by 1897 he had broken away from the more conservative Vienna Society of Artists to found the more radical Secession group. He also began to increasingly explore sexuality, and his interest in the female form dominated his works. He reportedly once stated, “I am less interested in myself as a subject of painting than I am in other people and, above all, women.”
His later years also see references to the cycle of life (which is depicted directly in Celebration Tree of the life in 1905), and made use of Japanese art, referred to as Japonism, in works that included Lady with a fan.
Controversial life
The artist raised many controversies in his personal and professional life. Some believe that he had sexual relations with several of his models, and that the unmarried artist had fathered 14 children with his many lovers. He also faced accusations of obscenity due to his erotic images, which some have also described as misogynistic.
Showcasing women as sensual ‘female killers’, his University of Vienna ceiling paintings in the early 20th century were denounced as obscene because of the way they depicted nudes. After the controversy, Klimt decided not to accept any more public commissions.
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