Klimt and the "Golden Phase"
1903/05-1911
Not everybody was able to afford works by Gustav Klimt. His clients were mostly men of the upper middle classes. His commissions were a mirror of Viennese society, which, on many occasions, speculated about the relationships the artist might have had with the depicted women. The Journalist Berta Zuckerkandl described Klimt as the “creator of the modern woman.”
Sonja Knips (1873-1959) was the first woman who, in 1898, had her portrait done by Gustav Klimt. From then on until the year 1907, the artist painted at least one female portrait every year. The image of Margarethe Stonborough-Wittgenstein (1882-1958) marks an important shift in Klimt’s concept of the female portrait. Previously, women of society were depicted in an impressionist manner that fused figure and background. From 1905 onwards, however, geometric forms and golden picture planes gradually began to dominate. On December 2, 1903, Gustav Klimt shared his impressions of a trip through Italy and wrote in a postcard to Emilie Flöge about “the mosaics of unimaginable splendour” he had seen.
The colourful, gold-dominated mosaics of Ravenna possibly gave him an impulse to use more and more gold colour in his works from 1903/05 onwards. The use of gold grounds was introduced to Europe from Byzantium in the 4th century and was initially reserved for depictions of saints and sovereigns. Gold was regarded as a symbol for the sun and stood for the sphere of the divine.In the portrait of Fritza Riedler (1860-1927) from 1906, Klimt for the first time used enclosed golden areas in the picture plane. The background as well as the figure itself are built up in geometric fashion. This way of composing was intensified in the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1881-1925), becoming more artisanal and decorative in appearance. Along with “The Kiss,” this painting is probably one of the best known of Klimt’s works. The body is recognizable only in outlines, while the figure itself has completely transmorphed into ornament. Only the head and the hands of the figure are depicted in naturalistic fashion. The art critic Ludwig Hevesi describes the painting as a “flush of gaudy colour, […] multi-coloured sensation, a lusty dream of jewels […] of wanting to rummage about in gemstones that do not exist. All gloss and flicker and multi-coloured sparkles without any palpability.”