The Three Ages of Woman | |
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Artist | Gustav Klimt |
Year | 1905 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 180 cm× 180 cm(71 in× 71 in) |
Location | Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Rome |
The Three Ages of Woman (German : Die drei Lebensalter der Frau) is a painting that was completed in Austria in 1905 by Gustav Klimt, symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.
The painting was exhibited during the second exhibition of the Deutsche Künstlerbund in May-October 1905 in Berlin under the title Die drei Lebensalter ("The Three Ages"). [1]
The work features women in varying stages of age, symbolizing the cycle of life. The three are central on the canvas and are the focal point of the work. The background has a lack of depth, making it look very two dimensional. The colors are neutral and create a restful effect. [2] Klimt's common use of colorful motifs is also evident in this work. There are two vertical auras that the women are in. The two younger figures are in a blue aura that has a fluid pattern of cool colors. The old woman is in an aura by herself, and it is filled with a less fluid pattern with more distinct separations in the design. The colors of this aura are warm, earthy tones that contrast with the cool colors of the other aura. The woman and the auras overlap slightly. The leg of the young woman goes behind the left aura and the old woman's head comes in front of the right aura.
The youngest figure, a child, is connected to the young woman who is her mother. They are the only two touching.They also have sheer blue fabric draped down their legs. The child and her mother both have their eyes closed. The young woman has flowers around her head which represent spring. [3] Her hair is bright and voluminous, contrasting with that of the old woman, who is separated from the other two women. Her head is turned away and facing down. The effects of old age are obvious through her sagging skin, bloated belly, and prominent veins. She is also unlike the other two in the fact that both of her feet are shown. This was done so the viewer can see the ugliness of her age in its entirety. [4]
The artist, Gustav Klimt, was a prominent Austrian painter who was born in 1862. He worked as an apprentice of Ferdinand Laufberger during the early part of his art career. Later he was a founding member and the first president of the Vienna Secession from 1897 to 1903. He and fellow artist formed the secession after leaving Künstlerhaus, or the Corporation of Austrian Artists due to differences in views. The Secession held many exhibitions and also founded a magazine titled Ver Sacrum, which translates as sacred spring. Here they published many writers and artists all while sharing the views of the Vienna Secession. Klimt left the Vienna Secession in 1905, the same year that The Three Ages of Woman was completed. [5]
This is an oil on canvas painting that measures 180 by 180 centimeters. It shows signs of an impasto painting technique that was common of Klimt's work. His painting methods included mixing drying solvents into the paint to make sure there was no unwanted glossy appearance. He also would retouch works, which limited how many paintings he was able to create per year. [6] The Three Ages of Woman falls into Klimt's Golden Period which includes other works such as The Kiss . This period was characterized by high ornamentation and the use of gold and metallic paints. [5] This work also suggests that it is part of the Art Nouveau movement due to the time period and the decorative elements. The Painting is located in Rome at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. [5]
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. Amongst his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.
Max Klinger was a German artist who produced significant work in painting, sculpture, prints and graphics, as well as writing a treatise articulating his ideas on art and the role of graphic arts and printmaking in relation to painting. He is associated with symbolism, the Vienna Secession, and Jugendstil the German manifestation of Art Nouveau. He is best known today for his many prints, particularly a series entitled Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove and his monumental sculptural installation in homage to Beethoven at the Vienna Secession in 1902.
The Vienna Secession is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt. They resigned from the Association of Austrian Artists in protest against its support for more traditional artistic styles. Their most influential architectural work was the Secession exhibitions hall designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich as a venue for expositions of the group. Their official magazine was called Ver Sacrum, which published highly stylised and influential works of graphic art. In 1905 the group itself split, when some of the most prominent members, including Klimt, Wagner, and Hoffmann, resigned in a dispute over priorities, but it continued to function, and still functions today, from its headquarters in the Secession Building. In its current form, the Secession exhibition gallery is independently led and managed by artists.
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Carl Julius Rudolf Moll was an Austrian Art Nouveau painter active in Vienna at the start of the 20th century. He was one of the artists of the Vienna Secession who took inspiration from the pointillist techniques of French Impressionists. He was an early supporter of the Nazis and committed suicide as Soviet forces approached Vienna at the end of World War II.
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Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is an oil painting on canvas, with gold leaf, by Gustav Klimt, completed between 1903 and 1907. The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer, a Viennese and Jewish banker and sugar producer. The painting was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and displayed at the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere. The portrait is the final and most fully representative work of Klimt's golden phase. It was the first of two depictions of Adele by Klimt—the second was completed in 1912; these were two of several works by the artist that the family owned.
The Klimt University of Vienna Ceiling Paintings, also known as the Faculty Paintings, were a series of paintings made by Gustav Klimt for the ceiling of the University of Vienna's Great Hall between the years of 1900–1907. In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to paint the ceiling. Upon presenting his paintings, Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence, Klimt came under attack for 'pornography' and 'perverted excess' in the paintings. None of the paintings would go on display in the university.
Josef Hoffmann was an Austrian-Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet Palace, in Brussels, (1905–1911) a pioneering work of Modern Architecture, Art Deco and peak of Vienna Secession architecture.
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The Beethoven Frieze is a painting by Gustav Klimt on display in the Secession Building, Vienna, Austria.
The Secession Building is an exhibition hall in Vienna, Austria. It was completed in 1898 by Joseph Maria Olbrich as an architectural manifesto for the Vienna Secession, a group of rebel artists that seceded from the long-established fine art institution.
Maximilian Franz Viktor Zdenko Marie Kurzweil was an Austrian painter and printmaker. He moved near Vienna in 1879.
Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 was an exhibition at the National Gallery, London, running from 9 October 2013 through to 12 January 2014.
Maximilian Lenz was an Austrian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Lenz was a founding member of the Vienna Secession; during his career's most important period, he was a Symbolist, but later his work became increasingly naturalistic. He worked in a variety of media, including oils, watercolours, lithography and metal reliefs.
Hope I is an oil painting created by Gustav Klimt in 1903. It is 189 cm x 67 cm and currently located in the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. The main subject of this work is a pregnant, nude female. She is holding her hands together above her stomach and close to her chest. She gazes directly at the viewer and has a great mass of hair with a crown of forget-me-not flowers placed on her head. The scene is beautiful upon first glance but once the viewer's eyes move to the background, deathlike figures become noticeably present.
Hope II is an oil-on-canvas painting with added gold and platinum by the Austrian symbolist artist Gustav Klimt, made in 1907–08, depicting a pregnant woman with closed eyes. It was the second of Klimt's works to focus on a pregnant woman, both depicting Herma, one of his favourite models. It was entitled Vision by Klimt, but has become known as Hope II after the earlier work Hope, which is now distinguished as Hope I. Hope II was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 1978.
Women Friends (1916-1917) is a painting by Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. Alternatively known as The Friends, or Girlfriends II, among others, the work was destroyed by fire in 1945 alongside several other of Klimt's paintings in the burning of Schloss Immendorf.
Schubert at the Piano was an oil-on-canvas painting by Gustav Klimt, from 1899. It depicts Austrian musician and composer Franz Schubert mid-performance. The painting shows Schubert seated at a piano surrounded by onlookers, bathed in candlelight. Klimt painted it in 1899 in the style of Art Nouveau, which focused on the use of organic shapes and flowing lines. The painting may have been commissioned in 1898 by Greek industrialist Nikolaus Dumba. In 1945, the work was destroyed in the fire at Schloss Immendorf. The image pictured is a photograph of the work.