Ancient Arts Socknado, Klimt, Bauerngarten COTM (08/24)

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian Symbolist painter, primarily noted for his allegorical works and female portraits. Early in his career, Klimt was a successful painter of architectural decorations executed in a conventional manner. As he began to develop a more personal style, his work increasingly became the subject of controversy which culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized for their radical subject matter and the way in which that subject matter was executed. Klimt stepped out of the historical ways of depicting figures and was excoriated as going too far when painting women.