Death and Life Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Description of Gustav Klimt’s painting Death and Life

The famous Austrian painter is the progenitor of Art Nouveau in Austrian life. The main themes of his canvases are the beautiful female body. As such, the bulk of his work is imbued with explicit erotic subjects.

At an early age Gustav discovered an attraction to painting. As a student, Gustav, along with his younger brother Ernst and his best friend Franz Macz created an art team, which quickly became famous and popular. The young men worked on sketches for a large-scale event timed to coincide with the silver wedding of Emperor Joseph of France and his bride, Empress Elisabeth. The style of the decoration of the celebration was reminiscent of Rubens’ paintings and the direction of the Venetian school.

Upon completion of their studies in Vienna, they opened their own workshop, and with this event their fame spread lightning-fast. And in 1885, the young talents were commissioned to paint the Empress’s favorite vacation spot, the Villa Hermes.

Later, Klimt was considered the most extraordinary artist of Austria. In his paintings intertwined questions of life, love, old age and death. The individuality of his work lies in the technique of conveying objects and elements that are filled with vivid color schemes of colors with a combination of golden colors. The artist uses exclusively pure colors and outlines the figures with a soft, rounded outline.

Death and Life reflects one of the leading themes of Klimt’s work. It depicts the dance of death, however, it seems that people do not yet foresee the impending danger. Here he used enamel, semi-precious stones and delightful marble mosaics and gold plating. This painting was the last large-scale project in the great artist’s life. All subsequent works were filled with wonderful and happy moments of life.