Gustav Klimt - Painting the Land

Gustav Klimt will always be best known for his iconic figurative paintings - with works like “The Kiss” or his Portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer forever shimmering in opulent golds.

But today, I wanted us to take a brief stroll into a whole other side to the man’s work - where perhaps we will find more of Klimt as a man than in any of those more famous portraits.

Church in Unterach on the Attersee - 1916 The Attersee (also known as lake Atler) is the largest lake of the Salzkammergut region in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. A favourite holiday destination for Klimt - it features in a number of these works.

Many of these Landscape paintings date from the last few years of Klimt’s life (he passed away in 1918, aged only 55) - and are mostly set around one of his favourite holiday destinations by Lake Atler in Austria.

But far from being just a side practice, or an afterthought when we think of his wider career - I think these works offer us the best possible insight into Klimt’s uniquely magical way of seeing the world.

Country House in Attersee

Of course, portraiture and figurative art was always his core passion - but for that very reason, much of his more luxuriant work can sometimes feel almost like a barrier to the man behind the work.

After all, when we look at a portrait, we are generally first trying to learn something about who is depicted, or what their story is . . . much more so than who actually painted them.

And in many ways, that was probably the whole point of them; because when it came to any question of traditional self portraiture, Klimt was pretty adamant in his viewpoint:

““I have never painted a self-portrait. I am less interested in myself as a subject for a painting than I am in other people, above all women…There is nothing special about me. I am a painter who paints day after day from morning to night…Whoever wants to know something about me, ought to look carefully at my pictures””

Schloss Kammer on the Attersee IV

Thus, if we are indeed trying to really “know something” about Klimt through his work, we need to look for something less literal than a physical likeness, or an ostentatious display. And this is where his landscapes can be seen almost like a window into his soul.

You see, while his portraiture and figurative paintings are an insight into what he liked looking at . . . here, we are presented with how he actually experienced this life.

We are taken to the places he loved the most - where perhaps he could put down his guard, and express himself a little more freely in this fragrant country air.

But, even further still, we are left with this permanent taste of what it was like to really see the world through Klimt’s eyes.

And what an eye he had!

Church in Cassone - 1913 (otherwise known as Landscape with Cypresses)

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