WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.700 OK, let's unpack this. We are diving deep into 00:00:02.700 --> 00:00:07.259 the life and really the legacy of Gustav Klimt. 00:00:07.259 --> 00:00:09.339 Right. A name everyone knows, you know, from 00:00:09.339 --> 00:00:12.640 that luxurious swirling gold in masterpieces 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:16.670 like The Kiss. Or the portrait of Adele Blockbauer 00:00:16.670 --> 00:00:19.949 I. Absolutely iconic. Exactly. We see the glitter. 00:00:20.010 --> 00:00:22.910 We see this incredible sensual beauty. But I 00:00:22.910 --> 00:00:26.589 think what we often miss is the, well, the sheer 00:00:26.589 --> 00:00:29.269 struggle behind it all. The massive public scandal, 00:00:29.390 --> 00:00:32.109 for one, and the commercial genius that transformed 00:00:32.109 --> 00:00:34.409 him from the son of a struggling gold engraver 00:00:34.409 --> 00:00:37.670 into really the defining figure of Viennese symbolism. 00:00:38.030 --> 00:00:40.549 So our mission today is to move far beyond just 00:00:40.549 --> 00:00:42.810 those famous images. We're going to tart his 00:00:42.810 --> 00:00:45.539 entire trajectory. academic painter to radical 00:00:45.539 --> 00:00:47.579 provocateur. It's quite a shift. A huge shift. 00:00:47.679 --> 00:00:49.960 And then how he kind of weaponized his golden 00:00:49.960 --> 00:00:51.920 phase for commercial success. And of course, 00:00:51.920 --> 00:00:55.679 the extraordinary, really complex legal and financial 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:57.420 battles that are still going on. Many involving 00:00:57.420 --> 00:00:59.899 Nazi looted art, which is a huge part of this 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:01.920 story. It makes his work some of the most expensive 00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:04.200 and you could argue ethically fraught on the 00:01:04.200 --> 00:01:06.849 entire planet. And we've got a deep body of information 00:01:06.849 --> 00:01:09.269 to work from. We have details on his biography, 00:01:09.569 --> 00:01:12.290 the whole political context of Vienna at the 00:01:12.290 --> 00:01:15.290 Fendisiek, the scandals that, you know, basically 00:01:15.290 --> 00:01:18.450 shattered his public career. And then the staggering 00:01:18.450 --> 00:01:21.150 auction history. It's just mind blowing. Right. 00:01:21.409 --> 00:01:23.750 And we're going to connect his early life, which 00:01:23.750 --> 00:01:26.450 was defined by real deprivation, directly to 00:01:26.450 --> 00:01:29.819 his ultimate artistic signature, the gold. So 00:01:29.819 --> 00:01:32.599 let's begin at the absolute start, long before 00:01:32.599 --> 00:01:35.019 the gold leaf became his trademark. We're looking 00:01:35.019 --> 00:01:37.739 at his foundation, his academic years. So from 00:01:37.739 --> 00:01:41.319 his birth in 1862 up to about 1892. And this 00:01:41.319 --> 00:01:43.319 part is essential because it shows the intense 00:01:43.319 --> 00:01:47.480 poverty and... the conservative ambition that 00:01:47.480 --> 00:01:49.420 shaped the man who would later rebel against 00:01:49.420 --> 00:01:51.439 it all. It's a crucial contrast, isn't it? It 00:01:51.439 --> 00:01:54.000 really is. Gustav Klimt was born in Baumgarten, 00:01:54.079 --> 00:01:56.079 which is a very working class suburb just outside 00:01:56.079 --> 00:01:58.959 Vienna, back in 1862. He was the second of seven 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:01.200 children. And life for the Klimts was not comfortable. 00:02:01.340 --> 00:02:03.280 We're talking about genuine, persistent poverty 00:02:03.280 --> 00:02:05.719 here. That's right. His father, Ernst Klimt the 00:02:05.719 --> 00:02:08.500 Elder, was a gold engraver, a craftsman from 00:02:08.500 --> 00:02:10.560 Bohemia. And it's important to understand that 00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:12.780 in the rigid class structure of the Austrian 00:02:12.780 --> 00:02:15.900 Empire, A craftsman like that, even a highly 00:02:15.900 --> 00:02:18.479 skilled one, really struggled financially. They 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:20.759 were providing these decorative services for 00:02:20.759 --> 00:02:23.219 the wealthy, but they were often living, you 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:25.360 know, paycheck to paycheck. And this financial 00:02:25.360 --> 00:02:28.080 stress meant constant instability for the family. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:31.199 Constant. We know that between 1862 and 1884, 00:02:31.439 --> 00:02:33.979 they were forced to move at least five times. 00:02:34.199 --> 00:02:37.219 Wow. Just constantly seeking cheaper rent. This 00:02:37.219 --> 00:02:38.740 wasn't just, you know, typical urban movement. 00:02:38.860 --> 00:02:41.639 It was a visible sign of distress, always chasing 00:02:41.639 --> 00:02:44.280 affordability. But the artistic talent in the 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:46.960 family ran deep. I read it was fueled by their 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:49.860 mother, Anna, who had her own unfulfilled ambitions 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:52.620 as a musical performer. That's right. And that 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:55.139 artistic drive, it manifested in all three of 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:59.259 the sons, Gustav, Ernst, and George. You can 00:02:59.259 --> 00:03:01.639 see the earliest signs of his artistic life right 00:03:01.639 --> 00:03:04.360 there in that humble home. His siblings often 00:03:04.360 --> 00:03:06.860 modeled for his first sketches. But that struggle 00:03:06.860 --> 00:03:10.000 was also underscored by some profound family 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:14.129 tragedy. Yes, early grief definitely shadowed 00:03:14.129 --> 00:03:16.469 his youth. We know that his five -year -old sister, 00:03:16.629 --> 00:03:19.490 Anna, died after a long illness. And then his 00:03:19.490 --> 00:03:22.169 eldest sister, Clara. Clara tragically became 00:03:22.169 --> 00:03:25.289 mentally disturbed, obsessed with religion. It 00:03:25.289 --> 00:03:27.669 was a condition she never recovered from. And 00:03:27.669 --> 00:03:29.509 their mother, too, is reported to have suffered 00:03:29.509 --> 00:03:32.289 from these frequent, deep depressions. God, to 00:03:32.289 --> 00:03:34.849 think of the psychological weight in that crowded, 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:38.229 constantly moving household. Such a raw, difficult 00:03:38.229 --> 00:03:41.330 foundation for a man who would become famous 00:03:41.330 --> 00:03:45.150 for art defined by, you know, ecstatic sensuality 00:03:45.150 --> 00:03:47.229 and wealth. It certainly infuses a psychological 00:03:47.229 --> 00:03:49.830 depth into his later work that, you know, pure 00:03:49.830 --> 00:03:51.969 academic training just couldn't provide. But 00:03:51.969 --> 00:03:54.169 initially, his path was strictly conventional. 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:57.129 Oh, completely. His drawing talent was recognized 00:03:57.129 --> 00:03:59.789 early on in his basic education, the Burgerschule. 00:04:00.169 --> 00:04:04.229 And at just 14 years old, in 1876, he was accepted 00:04:04.229 --> 00:04:06.590 into the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule. Okay, let's 00:04:06.590 --> 00:04:08.669 pause on that. The Kunstgewerbeschule. Why was 00:04:08.669 --> 00:04:10.629 that particular school so important and what 00:04:10.629 --> 00:04:13.530 did he study there? It's a vital context. Unlike 00:04:13.530 --> 00:04:16.230 the more, let's say, avant -garde academies, 00:04:16.350 --> 00:04:19.610 the Kunstgewerbeschule focused heavily on applied 00:04:19.610 --> 00:04:23.089 arts, on practical skills, architectural decoration. 00:04:23.449 --> 00:04:27.129 So, useful trades. Exactly. Klimt studied architectural 00:04:27.129 --> 00:04:30.360 painting there until 1883. And this training 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:33.740 was inherently conservative, very academic. He 00:04:33.740 --> 00:04:35.620 wasn't looking to reinvent art. He was looking 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:37.939 for a job. He was looking for reliable commercial 00:04:37.939 --> 00:04:40.800 success by mastering the established techniques, 00:04:41.060 --> 00:04:43.360 the kind of techniques you needed to decorate 00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:45.519 the grand public buildings that were going up 00:04:45.519 --> 00:04:47.939 all over Vienna during this massive expansion. 00:04:48.339 --> 00:04:50.540 So he was the eager student of the establishment, 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:53.920 not the radical we know now. Absolutely. He deeply 00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:56.319 revered Hans MacArthur. who is essentially the 00:04:56.319 --> 00:04:59.079 celebrity history painter of the era, Klimt truly 00:04:59.079 --> 00:05:01.600 aspired to replicate Mockhart's immense commercial 00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:04.259 and official success. So his early work looks 00:05:04.259 --> 00:05:07.600 nothing like The Kiss. Not at all. If you look 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.360 at his early output, it is purely academic. Focused 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:12.680 on meticulous, beautiful, but very conventional 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:15.180 interior murals and ceilings. And he didn't work 00:05:15.180 --> 00:05:18.379 alone. Around 1880, he formed what was basically 00:05:18.379 --> 00:05:20.699 a family business, right? The Kunstler Company. 00:05:20.939 --> 00:05:23.899 Yes. The company of artists with his brother 00:05:23.899 --> 00:05:26.399 Ernst, who was an engraver, and their friend 00:05:26.399 --> 00:05:28.800 Franz von Masch. It was a very smart commercial 00:05:28.800 --> 00:05:31.379 move. A business built for efficiency and scale. 00:05:31.579 --> 00:05:33.879 And they positioned themselves perfectly to get 00:05:33.879 --> 00:05:36.199 these lucrative architectural decoration commissions 00:05:36.199 --> 00:05:39.389 during the boom years of the empire. They worked 00:05:39.389 --> 00:05:42.490 extensively with the famous Viennese firm Felner 00:05:42.490 --> 00:05:45.170 & Helmer. The theater builders. The theater builders, 00:05:45.290 --> 00:05:47.949 yes. So they were painting murals and ceilings 00:05:47.949 --> 00:05:50.069 in major public buildings, not just in Vienna, 00:05:50.209 --> 00:05:53.870 but internationally, projects in Bucharest, Carlsbad. 00:05:54.360 --> 00:05:57.100 And in Vienna itself, they were heavily involved 00:05:57.100 --> 00:06:00.639 in the internal decoration of the new grand museums, 00:06:00.839 --> 00:06:03.459 like the Kunsthistorisches Museum. They were 00:06:03.459 --> 00:06:06.339 the dependable, talented commercial crew, the 00:06:06.339 --> 00:06:08.519 guys who knew how to execute these large -scale 00:06:08.519 --> 00:06:11.339 official commissions exactly to spec. And their 00:06:11.339 --> 00:06:13.939 period of peak academic success arrived pretty 00:06:13.939 --> 00:06:17.459 quickly. It did. The pinnacle really came with 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:19.660 his contributions to the ceiling and spandau 00:06:19.660 --> 00:06:23.279 murals of the Berg Theater in Vienna. This work 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:26.379 was so successful, so well received by the establishment, 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:30.899 that in 1888, Emperor Franz Joseph I personally 00:06:30.899 --> 00:06:34.540 awarded Klimt the Gold Cross of Merit. I mean, 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:37.019 that is Austria's highest artistic honor. It's 00:06:37.019 --> 00:06:39.620 an explicit official stamp of approval from the 00:06:39.620 --> 00:06:41.879 highest power in the land. You can't get more 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.620 establishment than that. Precisely. And that 00:06:44.620 --> 00:06:48.019 recognition just cemented his position. He followed 00:06:48.019 --> 00:06:50.980 that up in 1890 by receiving the brand new Kaiser 00:06:50.980 --> 00:06:53.100 Prize Award for his painting audience at the 00:06:53.100 --> 00:06:55.939 Old Burg Theater. So by age 28, Gustav Klimt 00:06:55.939 --> 00:06:58.740 was officially recognized, successful, and accepted 00:06:58.740 --> 00:07:01.620 by Vienna's high society. He had fulfilled every 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:03.860 single promise of his academic training. He had 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:06.079 done it. He escaped poverty. He'd achieved imperial 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:08.750 recognition. He was financially secure. But then, 00:07:08.870 --> 00:07:10.889 almost immediately, the personal trauma that 00:07:10.889 --> 00:07:12.870 seems to have been lurking just beneath the surface 00:07:12.870 --> 00:07:15.670 comes crashing back in 1892. That year was a 00:07:15.670 --> 00:07:19.790 dual disaster, a catastrophe. First, his father, 00:07:19.949 --> 00:07:23.009 Ernst the Elder, died of a stroke. Then, just 00:07:23.009 --> 00:07:25.649 shortly after, his brother Ernst died suddenly 00:07:25.649 --> 00:07:28.089 from pericarditis, after what started as just 00:07:28.089 --> 00:07:31.160 a heavy cold. And Klimt, at just 30 years old, 00:07:31.220 --> 00:07:33.500 was immediately saddled with massive financial 00:07:33.500 --> 00:07:36.100 and emotional responsibilities. He now had to 00:07:36.100 --> 00:07:38.160 assume financial responsibility not just for 00:07:38.160 --> 00:07:40.399 his own mother and sisters, but for his late 00:07:40.399 --> 00:07:43.379 brother Ernst's family as well. That is a huge 00:07:43.379 --> 00:07:46.560 extended family to support in 1890s Vienna. And 00:07:46.560 --> 00:07:48.759 it's this combination of grief compounded by 00:07:48.759 --> 00:07:51.860 economic necessity that really acts as the catalyst 00:07:51.860 --> 00:07:55.199 for his artistic shift. How so? Well, the immense 00:07:55.199 --> 00:07:57.660 grief severely limited his work for a time, but 00:07:57.660 --> 00:07:59.560 more importantly, it just fundamentally fractured 00:07:59.560 --> 00:08:02.379 his artistic vision. The sources detail how this 00:08:02.379 --> 00:08:04.980 trauma forced him away from that safe, conventional 00:08:04.980 --> 00:08:07.980 academic style and towards a profoundly personal, 00:08:08.319 --> 00:08:11.220 deeply symbolic aesthetic. He was no longer painting 00:08:11.220 --> 00:08:13.019 for the emperor. He was painting for himself, 00:08:13.319 --> 00:08:16.339 driven by loss and obligation. And that pivot 00:08:16.339 --> 00:08:18.759 brings us directly into his most controversial 00:08:18.759 --> 00:08:23.379 period. Let's move into that. Section two. The 00:08:23.379 --> 00:08:25.540 Rackle transformation, we're talking secession, 00:08:25.740 --> 00:08:29.019 new to Veritas, and the university scandal. This 00:08:29.019 --> 00:08:31.240 is where the star student becomes the iconoclast. 00:08:31.560 --> 00:08:34.200 The transformation is dramatic, and we start 00:08:34.200 --> 00:08:37.980 seeing his new symbolic language emerge. defined 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:41.200 by this figure of Nuda Veritas. Naked truth. 00:08:41.379 --> 00:08:43.700 Naked truth. She appears first in works like 00:08:43.700 --> 00:08:47.080 Pallas Athene in 1898 and then in her own dedicated 00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:50.179 work in 1899. Why Nuda Veritas? This feels like 00:08:50.179 --> 00:08:52.779 a very deliberate artistic choice, moving beyond 00:08:52.779 --> 00:08:56.120 simple allegory and into, well, critique. It 00:08:56.120 --> 00:08:58.899 absolutely was. Historians interpret the aggressive 00:08:58.899 --> 00:09:01.700 inclusion of Nuda Veritas as Klimt consciously 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:03.879 denouncing the prevailing social and political 00:09:03.879 --> 00:09:06.299 climate of the time. He was basically accusing 00:09:06.299 --> 00:09:08.860 the Habsburg monarchy and Austrian society of 00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:11.460 being willfully blind. Exactly. Ignoring the 00:09:11.460 --> 00:09:13.379 deep political corruption, the social problems, 00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:15.659 the stifling hypocrisy that existed just beneath 00:09:15.659 --> 00:09:18.139 that glittering veneer of imperial splendor. 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:21.019 The naked truth was his weapon. And his version 00:09:21.019 --> 00:09:23.059 of Nudo Veritas was designed to shock. We're 00:09:23.059 --> 00:09:25.440 not talking about a classical demure nude here. 00:09:25.740 --> 00:09:29.240 No, not at all. The 1899 painting features a 00:09:29.240 --> 00:09:32.559 starkly naked, strikingly redheaded woman who 00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:35.490 confronts the viewer. defiantly holding up the 00:09:35.490 --> 00:09:37.529 mirror of truth. And the provocation wasn't just 00:09:37.529 --> 00:09:40.129 visual. He inscribed a quote underneath the figure, 00:09:40.230 --> 00:09:42.750 right? Yes, from Friedrich Schiller in this very 00:09:42.750 --> 00:09:45.129 stylized lettering. And this quote is often seen 00:09:45.129 --> 00:09:48.710 as the foundational manifesto of his entire radical 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:51.690 phase. And that quote is, If you cannot please 00:09:51.690 --> 00:09:54.350 everyone with your deeds and your art, please 00:09:54.350 --> 00:09:58.279 only a few. To please many is bad. Wow. Think 00:09:58.279 --> 00:10:00.360 about that. The man who had just won the Kaiser 00:10:00.360 --> 00:10:02.899 Prize for pleasing everyone is now explicitly 00:10:02.899 --> 00:10:05.779 rejecting popular mainstream approval. He chose 00:10:05.779 --> 00:10:08.399 elitism and intellectual honesty over the commercial 00:10:08.399 --> 00:10:10.379 safety he had just spent his entire life trying 00:10:10.379 --> 00:10:12.700 to secure. This philosophy is what fueled the 00:10:12.700 --> 00:10:14.960 creation of the Vienna secession movement in 00:10:14.960 --> 00:10:17.740 1897, where Clint was a founding member and the 00:10:17.740 --> 00:10:20.509 first president. What was the driving force behind 00:10:20.509 --> 00:10:22.929 this artistic revolution? The secession was a 00:10:22.929 --> 00:10:25.789 direct revolt against the institutionalized conservative 00:10:25.789 --> 00:10:27.909 art establishment of the day, the Kunstlerhaus. 00:10:28.110 --> 00:10:31.350 They had three clear, aggressive goals. First, 00:10:31.509 --> 00:10:33.690 they desperately needed to provide exhibition 00:10:33.690 --> 00:10:36.710 space for the unconventional, talented young 00:10:36.710 --> 00:10:39.629 artists who were being routinely rejected and 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:42.450 ignored by the establishment. So creating a parallel 00:10:42.450 --> 00:10:45.639 system. Precisely. Second, they aimed to bring 00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:48.259 the very best of contemporary foreign art to 00:10:48.259 --> 00:10:51.360 Vienna, which was culturally lagging behind places 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:53.879 like Paris and Munich. They wanted to inject 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.700 new ideas into the city. And third, they published 00:10:56.700 --> 00:10:59.279 their own magazine, Versacrum. Sacred Spring. 00:10:59.559 --> 00:11:02.200 Sacred Spring, yes, to showcase their members' 00:11:02.340 --> 00:11:04.970 work and aesthetic philosophy. And the magazine 00:11:04.970 --> 00:11:07.029 itself was an art object, you know, using radical, 00:11:07.149 --> 00:11:10.149 often sparse graphic design. What's fascinating 00:11:10.149 --> 00:11:12.850 about the secession, unlike so many other movements, 00:11:12.929 --> 00:11:16.250 is that it didn't mandate a specific style. No, 00:11:16.289 --> 00:11:18.350 it was a big tent movement focused on freedom 00:11:18.350 --> 00:11:21.450 of expression. They declared no manifesto defining 00:11:21.450 --> 00:11:24.559 a single aesthetic. You had naturalists, symbolists, 00:11:24.580 --> 00:11:27.559 and realists all coexisting, united only by the 00:11:27.559 --> 00:11:30.320 goal of breaking free from the suffocating conservatism 00:11:30.320 --> 00:11:32.340 of the past. Their symbol was Pallas Athena, 00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:36.139 the Greek goddess of wisdom and arts. And Klimt 00:11:36.139 --> 00:11:38.919 painted his own radical, almost aggressively 00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.820 modern version of her in 1898, crowning her with 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:46.059 a Medusa face. You know, art, wisdom, justified 00:11:46.059 --> 00:11:48.940 rebellion, it was all there. This defiant attitude 00:11:48.940 --> 00:11:50.779 meant that the conflict with the establishment 00:11:50.779 --> 00:11:52.980 wasn't just theoretical, it was personal and 00:11:52.980 --> 00:11:55.399 public. We even see this in the titles he wanted 00:11:55.399 --> 00:11:57.279 to use for his work. You're referring to the 00:11:57.279 --> 00:12:00.679 1902 painting Goldfish. Right. It showed a very 00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:04.159 stylized, frankly provocative naked woman just 00:12:04.159 --> 00:12:06.840 flaunting her posterior towards the viewer. And 00:12:06.840 --> 00:12:08.960 Klimt's initial aggressive choice for a title 00:12:08.960 --> 00:12:12.299 was? To my critics. It was so openly hostile 00:12:12.299 --> 00:12:14.460 that his friends had to intervene and convince 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:17.200 him to use the more innocuous, though still charged, 00:12:17.360 --> 00:12:20.460 goldfish. The animosity was boiling over. And 00:12:20.460 --> 00:12:22.580 this hostility reached its catastrophic, career 00:12:22.580 --> 00:12:25.080 -defining peak with the university ceiling painting's 00:12:25.080 --> 00:12:27.659 controversy. This was arguably the most significant 00:12:27.659 --> 00:12:30.220 turning point of his career. It was a spectacular 00:12:30.220 --> 00:12:32.960 public failure, even if it led to his ultimate 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:37.220 artistic freedom. 1894, before the secession, 00:12:37.379 --> 00:12:40.200 he and his former partner Franz von Match were 00:12:40.200 --> 00:12:43.120 commissioned to create three faculty paintings, 00:12:43.399 --> 00:12:46.600 Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence. For 00:12:46.600 --> 00:12:48.779 the great hall of the newly built University 00:12:48.779 --> 00:12:51.279 of Vienna. And the expectation was traditional 00:12:51.279 --> 00:12:54.460 allegory, right? Think classically draped figures 00:12:54.460 --> 00:12:57.000 representing abstract concepts like knowledge 00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.100 or healing. Exactly. The expectation was safe. 00:13:00.440 --> 00:13:03.299 uplifting, patriotic allegory suitable for a 00:13:03.299 --> 00:13:06.399 major imperial institution. But when Klimt delivered 00:13:06.399 --> 00:13:09.179 them around 1900, the reaction was immediate, 00:13:09.379 --> 00:13:12.080 visceral and overwhelming outrage. From everyone. 00:13:12.299 --> 00:13:14.340 Everyone. The press, politicians, academics, 00:13:14.539 --> 00:13:16.659 religious leaders all united against them. They 00:13:16.659 --> 00:13:18.919 were instantly dubbed pornographic. What did 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:20.740 they actually look like and why did they provoke 00:13:20.740 --> 00:13:23.059 such a strong reaction? Klimt had completely 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:25.360 abandoned the high -minded allegorical tradition. 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:28.360 In philosophy, instead of presenting the clarity 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:30.779 of knowledge, he showed a swirling vortex of 00:13:30.779 --> 00:13:33.179 humanity floating, confused, despairing figures 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:36.120 reaching toward the cosmos. Very dark, chaotic, 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:39.200 and frankly pessimistic about human endeavors. 00:13:39.700 --> 00:13:42.919 And medicine. Medicine was perhaps even worse 00:13:42.919 --> 00:13:45.220 in the eyes of the critics. It was supposed to 00:13:45.220 --> 00:13:48.100 celebrate healing, but Klimt presented a tangled 00:13:48.100 --> 00:13:51.220 mass of living and dead bodies, all vulnerable, 00:13:51.480 --> 00:13:53.720 naked, and often sexualized, floating near a 00:13:53.720 --> 00:13:56.879 skeleton. Wow. And his central figure, Hygieia, 00:13:56.919 --> 00:13:59.559 the goddess of health, was completely isolated 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:02.919 from the chaos, almost useless. He seemed to 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:04.960 suggest that medicine was helpless against the 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:08.179 ultimate fate of death and suffering. So he didn't 00:14:08.179 --> 00:14:10.500 just paint controversial figures. He painted 00:14:10.500 --> 00:14:13.600 a nihilistic view of the very academic pursuits 00:14:13.600 --> 00:14:16.080 the hall was meant to celebrate. Yes. They were 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.960 perceived as an insult to reason, morality, and 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.970 the empire itself. More than 80 members of the 00:14:21.970 --> 00:14:24.269 university faculty signed a petition condemning 00:14:24.269 --> 00:14:26.710 the works. So what happened? The result was the 00:14:26.710 --> 00:14:28.309 paintings were never displayed on the ceiling 00:14:28.309 --> 00:14:30.929 for which they were intended. Klimt, furious, 00:14:31.269 --> 00:14:32.750 bought them back from the government with the 00:14:32.750 --> 00:14:35.090 help of a patron, declaring he would never accept 00:14:35.090 --> 00:14:37.570 a public commission again. It's a tragic footnote, 00:14:37.649 --> 00:14:40.389 but one that underscores the immense fragility 00:14:40.389 --> 00:14:43.169 of art in periods of conflict. The consequence, 00:14:43.470 --> 00:14:46.309 decades later, was final. A complete tragedy. 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.179 Not only was this the last public commission 00:14:49.179 --> 00:14:52.340 Klimt ever accepted, but the three faculty paintings, 00:14:52.559 --> 00:14:54.779 along with 10 other paintings owned by Klimt's 00:14:54.779 --> 00:14:57.100 Jewish patrons, were stored in a place called 00:14:57.100 --> 00:15:01.600 Schloss Immendorf. And in May 1945. As retreating 00:15:01.600 --> 00:15:03.720 German forces burned the castle to prevent it 00:15:03.720 --> 00:15:06.500 from falling into Soviet hands, all three works 00:15:06.500 --> 00:15:09.539 were destroyed forever. We only know them today 00:15:09.539 --> 00:15:11.299 through black and white photographs and some 00:15:11.299 --> 00:15:14.440 detailed studies. To think that his final three 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:17.220 public commissions, the very works that led to 00:15:17.220 --> 00:15:19.679 his banishment from the establishment, were ultimately 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:22.559 erased by war. It just really underscores the 00:15:22.559 --> 00:15:24.860 profound vulnerability of radical art. In the 00:15:24.860 --> 00:15:27.100 wake of that storm, Klimt turned his attention 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:30.500 to massive temporary projects that allowed him 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:32.899 more freedom. Like the Beethoven freeze in 1902. 00:15:33.100 --> 00:15:36.139 Right. This was a monumental work intended specifically 00:15:36.139 --> 00:15:38.740 for the 14th Vienna Secessionist Exhibition, 00:15:38.779 --> 00:15:41.279 a celebration of Beethoven and his Ninth Symphony. 00:15:41.399 --> 00:15:44.980 It was huge, right? Enormous. Over 112 feet long. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:47.779 And it was painted directly onto the walls using 00:15:47.779 --> 00:15:50.779 light, temporary materials, precisely because 00:15:50.779 --> 00:15:52.879 it was only meant to exist for the duration of 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:55.220 the exhibition. And it depicts the human yearning 00:15:55.220 --> 00:15:57.440 for happiness against all these hostile forces. 00:15:57.799 --> 00:16:00.919 Thickness, madness, lechery, yes. It's interesting, 00:16:00.980 --> 00:16:03.480 too, that the portrait face representing the 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:06.340 heroic figure in the frieze was rumored to resemble 00:16:06.340 --> 00:16:09.330 Gustav Mahler. The composer and Vienna court 00:16:09.330 --> 00:16:11.809 opera director, another figure grappling with 00:16:11.809 --> 00:16:14.029 the Viennese cultural establishment. Mahler was 00:16:14.029 --> 00:16:16.190 another iconoclast of the time, so the connection 00:16:16.190 --> 00:16:19.570 feels intentional. Thankfully, despite its temporary 00:16:19.570 --> 00:16:22.269 nature, the work was preserved after the exhibition. 00:16:22.509 --> 00:16:24.470 It was hidden away. In a collector's cellar until 00:16:24.470 --> 00:16:27.529 the 1970s. And after a major restoration, it 00:16:27.529 --> 00:16:30.590 was put on display in 1986. And you can still 00:16:30.590 --> 00:16:33.200 see it today. Even within the secession, though, 00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:35.860 Klimt's tendency toward radicalism caused friction. 00:16:36.059 --> 00:16:38.700 He eventually left the movement he founded. Yes. 00:16:39.039 --> 00:16:41.899 Internal dissensions reached a peak around 1905. 00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:44.720 The arguments centered on the conflict between 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:46.899 the so -called naturalists, who favored a more 00:16:46.899 --> 00:16:50.120 traditional interpretation, and the more symbolist, 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:52.879 radical Klimt group. So he didn't just split. 00:16:52.940 --> 00:16:55.220 He took his most important supporters with him. 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:58.940 He did. When his close ally, the artistic consultant 00:16:58.940 --> 00:17:01.899 Karl Moll, was attacked by colleagues, Klimt 00:17:01.899 --> 00:17:04.880 led a mass walkout. He formed the Kunshau, or 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:07.339 the Klimt Group, with supporters like Moll and 00:17:07.339 --> 00:17:10.380 the architect Otto Wagner. So he basically achieved 00:17:10.380 --> 00:17:12.819 freedom from the Academy, only to realize he 00:17:12.819 --> 00:17:15.019 needed freedom from the secession, too. He did, 00:17:15.200 --> 00:17:17.960 which brings us perfectly to Section 3, the golden 00:17:17.960 --> 00:17:20.559 phase, his private life, and his works of the 00:17:20.559 --> 00:17:23.019 female form. This is the era of extraordinary 00:17:23.019 --> 00:17:25.880 critical acclaim and massive commercial success. 00:17:26.119 --> 00:17:28.559 This is the period that defined his global fame. 00:17:28.759 --> 00:17:30.920 The golden phase began when he started incorporating 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:34.099 actual gold leaf into his paintings. It provided 00:17:34.099 --> 00:17:36.539 that luxurious, almost Byzantine aesthetic he 00:17:36.539 --> 00:17:39.200 is so famous for. Was this just an artistic whim 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:41.819 or was there a direct inspiration for using gold? 00:17:42.039 --> 00:17:44.460 It was almost certainly inspired by his travels. 00:17:44.940 --> 00:17:48.160 He visited Venice and Ravenna in the early 1900s 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:50.420 and would have seen those stunning Byzantine 00:17:50.420 --> 00:17:53.440 mosaics, the way they flattened space and shimmered 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:56.059 with light. So he took that religious opulent 00:17:56.059 --> 00:17:59.099 technique and applied it to secular erotic imagery. 00:17:59.380 --> 00:18:01.220 Exactly. It's incredible, too, when you think 00:18:01.220 --> 00:18:03.640 about it. The son of a struggling gold engraver, 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:06.339 a man whose early life was defined by the lack 00:18:06.339 --> 00:18:09.440 of money from his father's gold craft, then turns 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:11.880 that very material into his personal artistic 00:18:11.880 --> 00:18:15.819 signature. Was the gold leaf an homage to his 00:18:15.819 --> 00:18:18.319 father's craft or was it a rebellion against 00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:20.460 it? It's a profound psychological connection. 00:18:20.980 --> 00:18:24.460 In his father's time, gold engraving was meticulous 00:18:24.460 --> 00:18:27.700 labor that rarely yielded wealth. Klimt took 00:18:27.700 --> 00:18:30.000 the raw material of that struggle, the gold craver, 00:18:30.079 --> 00:18:33.059 and elevated it into an expression of untouchable, 00:18:33.059 --> 00:18:36.440 elite, successful genius. So he was reclaiming 00:18:36.440 --> 00:18:39.279 it? In a way, yes. The gold in his work is often 00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:41.480 not applied like paint. It's hammered and worked 00:18:41.480 --> 00:18:43.640 like a craftsman would, referencing his roots 00:18:43.640 --> 00:18:45.920 while simultaneously rejecting the poverty of 00:18:45.920 --> 00:18:47.920 his childhood. And it brought him both financial 00:18:47.920 --> 00:18:51.000 security and critical success. And the key examples 00:18:51.000 --> 00:18:54.559 are iconic. Jude I from 1901, the spectacular 00:18:54.559 --> 00:18:58.019 portrait of Adele Blockbauer I from 1907, and 00:18:58.019 --> 00:19:01.579 of course, the kiss from 1907 -1908. The decorative 00:19:01.579 --> 00:19:04.279 element reached its absolute zenith in his work 00:19:04.279 --> 00:19:07.000 on the Stocklet frieze, completed between 1905 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:09.460 and 1911. Tell us about the Stocklet Palace. 00:19:09.640 --> 00:19:12.339 This was a huge commission. A massive, total 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:15.079 work of art project in Brussels, designed by 00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:17.740 Joseph Hoffman for the wealthy Belgian industrialist 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:21.069 Adolphe Stocklet. Klink was commissioned to create 00:19:21.069 --> 00:19:22.930 the frieze for the dining room. And he didn't 00:19:22.930 --> 00:19:25.369 hold back. Not at all. He incorporated gold, 00:19:25.609 --> 00:19:28.170 silver, marble, coral, semi -precious stones. 00:19:28.430 --> 00:19:30.789 It was applied art taken to his most extreme, 00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:33.720 luxurious conclusion. And Klimt viewed his panels 00:19:33.720 --> 00:19:36.039 for the Stocklip Palace, especially Fulfillment 00:19:36.039 --> 00:19:38.579 and Expectation, as the ultimate expression of 00:19:38.579 --> 00:19:40.660 his technique. He called it probably the ultimate 00:19:40.660 --> 00:19:42.660 stage of my development of ornament. It was the 00:19:42.660 --> 00:19:44.880 ultimate intersection of fine art and applied 00:19:44.880 --> 00:19:47.880 arts, a manifesto of the Gesamtkonsort, the total 00:19:47.880 --> 00:19:50.059 work of art that the Viennese modernists sought 00:19:50.059 --> 00:19:52.759 to achieve. Beyond the gold, Klimt defined himself 00:19:52.759 --> 00:19:56.450 above all else as the painter of women. His dedication 00:19:56.450 --> 00:19:59.509 to large format portraits, he aimed to complete 00:19:59.509 --> 00:20:03.190 roughly one per year, and his use of allegories 00:20:03.190 --> 00:20:05.529 transformed Old Testament heroines into these 00:20:05.529 --> 00:20:09.109 dangerous modern femme fatales. His core preoccupation 00:20:09.109 --> 00:20:13.009 was the duality of life, love, and death, viewed 00:20:13.009 --> 00:20:15.589 through the lens of femininity. He interpreted 00:20:15.589 --> 00:20:18.509 female sexuality not as passive beauty, but as 00:20:18.509 --> 00:20:20.910 an active, alluring, and sometimes dangerous 00:20:20.910 --> 00:20:24.079 force. His women radiate confidence and sexual 00:20:24.079 --> 00:20:26.559 authority. Absolutely. Whether it's Judith, Denae, 00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:28.859 or Adele Blockbauer. And this commitment to the 00:20:28.859 --> 00:20:31.000 feminine extended directly into his personal 00:20:31.000 --> 00:20:32.920 life, though with significant contradictions. 00:20:33.160 --> 00:20:35.740 You mentioned he cultivated close, intimate relationships 00:20:35.740 --> 00:20:38.319 with his models and clients. He did. Many of 00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:40.140 his key patrons were from the assimilated Jewish 00:20:40.140 --> 00:20:43.099 Viennese haute bourgeoisie. And the sources note 00:20:43.099 --> 00:20:45.579 he was viewed as progressive because he genuinely 00:20:45.579 --> 00:20:48.140 allowed women an active, powerful sexual role 00:20:48.140 --> 00:20:51.059 in his art and his personal interactions. But 00:20:51.059 --> 00:20:52.680 let's be frank about the contradictions here. 00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:55.460 You're talking about an artist considered progressive 00:20:55.460 --> 00:20:59.859 for embracing female sexuality, yet he was sexually 00:20:59.859 --> 00:21:03.500 prolific, fathering at least 14 children. But 00:21:03.500 --> 00:21:05.920 only formally recognized four of them after his 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:08.799 death. That seems like a massive ethical gap 00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:12.079 between the idea of the femme fatale he celebrated 00:21:12.079 --> 00:21:15.380 on canvas and the reality of his personal responsibility. 00:21:15.839 --> 00:21:18.799 It is a critical duality. He was a radical in 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:21.119 his art, freeing women from social constraints 00:21:21.119 --> 00:21:23.579 on the canvas, but very much a man of his time 00:21:23.579 --> 00:21:26.099 and his personal conduct. He maintained discreet 00:21:26.099 --> 00:21:28.660 relationships and relied on Viennese social discretion 00:21:28.660 --> 00:21:31.440 to manage his affairs. And while he was intimate 00:21:31.440 --> 00:21:33.859 with many women, he reserved a very different 00:21:33.859 --> 00:21:37.119 singular space for his lifelong companion, Emily 00:21:37.119 --> 00:21:39.660 Louise Flij. That platonic relationship with 00:21:39.660 --> 00:21:41.339 Emily is one of the most fascinating aspects 00:21:41.339 --> 00:21:43.980 of his life. It's remarkable. She was a successful 00:21:43.980 --> 00:21:46.519 fashion designer, the sister of his late brother 00:21:46.519 --> 00:21:49.589 Ernst. widow. She was his confidante, his frequent 00:21:49.589 --> 00:21:52.230 travel partner, his muse. Yet their relationship 00:21:52.230 --> 00:21:54.250 was intimate, but almost certainly platonic. 00:21:54.599 --> 00:21:56.779 And their professional collaboration was vital. 00:21:56.940 --> 00:21:59.799 He designed costumes that Fleuge produced and 00:21:59.799 --> 00:22:01.940 modeled in his works, essentially blending art 00:22:01.940 --> 00:22:04.920 and fashion. Right. And it's widely believed 00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:07.599 that the intertwined couple in the kiss is a 00:22:07.599 --> 00:22:10.059 symbolic representation of their deep, lifelong 00:22:10.059 --> 00:22:12.980 bond, even if it wasn't a traditional romantic 00:22:12.980 --> 00:22:15.759 partnership. The irony is that the most famously 00:22:15.759 --> 00:22:18.519 sensual image of the 20th century may depict 00:22:18.519 --> 00:22:21.259 a platonic love. It's incredible to think about. 00:22:21.420 --> 00:22:23.920 His work habits were also highly idiosyncratic. 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.099 For celebrity artists who could command any social 00:22:27.099 --> 00:22:30.000 setting, he lived a simple, almost cloistered 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:32.460 life. He avoided the constant social demands 00:22:32.460 --> 00:22:35.259 of Viennese cafe society. dedicating himself 00:22:35.259 --> 00:22:37.720 primarily to his art and his immediate family. 00:22:37.799 --> 00:22:40.039 And the anecdotes about his studio attire are 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:42.400 priceless. He wore sandals and a long, flowing 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:45.160 robe with no undergarments. This was his uniform 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.420 for receiving the wealthiest patrons of the empire, 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:50.960 a truly radical act of comfortable iconoclasm. 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:53.019 It's pure confidence, isn't it, that only a true 00:22:53.019 --> 00:22:55.339 genius could pull off. And his actual painting 00:22:55.339 --> 00:22:59.279 process was notoriously slow. Extremely painstaking. 00:22:59.869 --> 00:23:02.730 He was deliberate, sometimes obsessive, often 00:23:02.730 --> 00:23:04.690 requiring lengthy sittings from his subjects, 00:23:04.890 --> 00:23:08.450 hundreds sometimes. And he was a minimalist when 00:23:08.450 --> 00:23:10.849 it came to personal documentation. He kept no 00:23:10.849 --> 00:23:13.130 diary, but wrote very little about his artistic 00:23:13.130 --> 00:23:15.509 vision. Mostly just postcards to float. Right. 00:23:15.829 --> 00:23:19.190 But the sources do preserve one vital piece of 00:23:19.190 --> 00:23:22.369 philosophical insight from him. his commentary 00:23:22.369 --> 00:23:25.210 on a non -existent self -portrait. And it perfectly 00:23:25.210 --> 00:23:27.549 sums up his focus. It's the ultimate statement 00:23:27.549 --> 00:23:30.150 of an artist's focus solely on the external world. 00:23:30.670 --> 00:23:33.690 He flatly stated, I have never painted a self 00:23:33.690 --> 00:23:36.170 -portrait. I am less interested in myself as 00:23:36.170 --> 00:23:38.390 a subject for a painting than I am in other people, 00:23:38.490 --> 00:23:41.109 above all women. There is nothing special about 00:23:41.109 --> 00:23:43.750 me. I am a painter who paints day after day from 00:23:43.750 --> 00:23:45.690 morning to night. He ends with, whoever wants 00:23:45.690 --> 00:23:47.430 to know something about me ought to look carefully 00:23:47.430 --> 00:23:50.190 at my pictures. The art is the biography. beyond 00:23:50.190 --> 00:23:52.609 his figurative work and portraits only one other 00:23:52.609 --> 00:23:56.029 genre held his serious interest landscapes yes 00:23:56.029 --> 00:23:58.910 his landscape paintings mostly done during his 00:23:58.910 --> 00:24:00.869 annual summer holidays with the floge family 00:24:00.869 --> 00:24:04.170 on the shores of the addersea lake and he took 00:24:04.170 --> 00:24:06.950 these summer retreats seriously they were intense 00:24:06.950 --> 00:24:10.329 working periods i appreciate the local lore about 00:24:10.329 --> 00:24:12.750 his landscape obsession the locals called him 00:24:12.750 --> 00:24:16.759 waldschratt Forest Demon. Literally, the Forest 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:19.579 Demon, because of his intensity and his peculiar 00:24:19.579 --> 00:24:22.500 appearance in that robe. This wasn't just a nickname. 00:24:22.660 --> 00:24:25.200 It reflected how intensely focused he was. And 00:24:25.200 --> 00:24:27.440 these landscapes, like Schloss by the Water, 00:24:27.619 --> 00:24:30.460 display the same highly refined, two -dimensional 00:24:30.460 --> 00:24:32.759 patterning that defines his figurative pieces. 00:24:33.160 --> 00:24:36.259 They feel so intense and flat at the same time. 00:24:36.650 --> 00:24:39.089 That flatness is intentional and perhaps technically 00:24:39.089 --> 00:24:42.049 assisted. Deep space in these paintings is so 00:24:42.049 --> 00:24:44.309 aggressively flattened to a single plane, almost 00:24:44.309 --> 00:24:46.849 like an abstract textile pattern, that art historians 00:24:46.849 --> 00:24:49.230 widely believe he used a telescope or some kind 00:24:49.230 --> 00:24:51.069 of viewing device to paint them. A telescope? 00:24:51.210 --> 00:24:53.509 By using a telescope, he would force distant 00:24:53.509 --> 00:24:55.809 elements into the foreground aesthetic, eliminating 00:24:55.809 --> 00:24:58.269 natural perspective and creating that suffocating, 00:24:58.289 --> 00:25:00.710 dense focus we see in his nature studies. That 00:25:00.710 --> 00:25:02.769 makes perfect sense. It turns the landscape into 00:25:02.769 --> 00:25:05.109 a decorative object rather than a naturalistic 00:25:05.109 --> 00:25:09.529 scene. Okay, moving on to section four. The graphic 00:25:09.529 --> 00:25:12.650 works and posthumous folios. We need to cover 00:25:12.650 --> 00:25:16.210 his influence, his final years, and how his meticulousness 00:25:16.210 --> 00:25:18.809 ensured his legacy was preserved through print. 00:25:19.170 --> 00:25:22.029 Klimt's influence was profound, even during his 00:25:22.029 --> 00:25:24.809 lifetime. He inspired artists in the Italian 00:25:24.809 --> 00:25:28.650 liberty style, like Galileo Cini, and most significantly, 00:25:28.670 --> 00:25:31.329 he was a massive influence on his younger, more 00:25:31.329 --> 00:25:35.019 anxious peer, Egon Scheele. Who had a much darker, 00:25:35.039 --> 00:25:37.240 more expressionistic take on the human body. 00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:40.660 Much darker. In 1917, they even founded the Kunsthalle 00:25:40.660 --> 00:25:42.920 in an effort to keep local talent from abandoning 00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:45.240 Vienna during the increasingly bleak years of 00:25:45.240 --> 00:25:47.259 the First World War. And his international success 00:25:47.259 --> 00:25:50.460 continued even amidst the conflict. It did. In 00:25:50.460 --> 00:25:53.160 1911, his painting Death and Life won first prize 00:25:53.160 --> 00:25:56.109 at the World Exhibitions in Rome. He later reworked 00:25:56.109 --> 00:25:58.789 it in 1915, notably changing the background from 00:25:58.789 --> 00:26:01.369 gold to a deep blue, showing his subtle shift 00:26:01.369 --> 00:26:03.569 away from the strict golden phase aesthetic in 00:26:03.569 --> 00:26:05.569 his final years. But the shadow of the war and 00:26:05.569 --> 00:26:08.410 the Spanish flu quickly ended his career. A terrible 00:26:08.410 --> 00:26:11.430 end for such a vigorous artist. After the death 00:26:11.430 --> 00:26:14.230 of his mother in 1915, Klimt suffered a severe 00:26:14.230 --> 00:26:17.289 stroke in January 1918 that paralyzed his right 00:26:17.289 --> 00:26:20.049 side. He died just a few weeks later. On February 00:26:20.049 --> 00:26:23.769 6, 1918, age 55. from pneumonia brought about 00:26:23.769 --> 00:26:25.910 by the Spanish flu epidemic that was ravaging 00:26:25.910 --> 00:26:29.690 Europe. He left numerous major canvases, like 00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:32.750 Lady with a Fan and Adam and Eve, heartbreakingly 00:26:32.750 --> 00:26:35.509 unfinished. It's remarkable that, despite the 00:26:35.509 --> 00:26:38.150 abrupt end to his life, his legacy was secured 00:26:38.150 --> 00:26:40.750 almost immediately because he was so meticulous 00:26:40.750 --> 00:26:43.190 about documenting and publishing his own work. 00:26:43.390 --> 00:26:45.569 That self -preservation impulse is very visible 00:26:45.569 --> 00:26:48.269 in the folio sets. The first and most significant 00:26:48.269 --> 00:26:51.359 was Dustin. for Gustav Klimt's, the work of Gustav 00:26:51.359 --> 00:26:53.680 Klimt, the only folio produced during his lifetime 00:26:53.680 --> 00:26:56.500 published between 1908 and 1914. And he personally 00:26:56.500 --> 00:26:59.400 oversaw every detail. He was a genuine perfectionist 00:26:59.400 --> 00:27:01.500 about the reproduction quality. He insisted on 00:27:01.500 --> 00:27:03.400 using colotype lithography, which was a very 00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:06.240 high quality, continuous tone process. He demanded 00:27:06.240 --> 00:27:08.359 multicolored prints and even the incorporation 00:27:08.359 --> 00:27:10.859 of actual gold and silver overlays. The process 00:27:10.859 --> 00:27:14.569 was so difficult and expensive that the set which 00:27:14.569 --> 00:27:17.390 started publication in 1908, wasn't completed 00:27:17.390 --> 00:27:20.250 until 1914. How many copies were produced and 00:27:20.250 --> 00:27:22.569 who was he targeting with this? Only 300 editions 00:27:22.569 --> 00:27:24.829 were printed, and they were intended for the 00:27:24.829 --> 00:27:27.849 highest echelon of European collecting. They 00:27:27.849 --> 00:27:30.569 featured 50 images of his most important paintings 00:27:30.569 --> 00:27:33.630 organized into five thematic categories. It was 00:27:33.630 --> 00:27:35.710 a status symbol almost immediately. Absolutely. 00:27:35.829 --> 00:27:39.650 The list of subscribers included royalty. Emperor 00:27:39.650 --> 00:27:42.190 Franz Josephus Wright himself was the very first 00:27:42.190 --> 00:27:45.990 purchaser of a folio set in 1908. He gave Klimt 00:27:45.990 --> 00:27:48.349 total control over his image. And after his death, 00:27:48.720 --> 00:27:51.359 His intensely private and erotic graphic works 00:27:51.359 --> 00:27:53.740 were finally made available through other folios. 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.960 Yes, the first posthumous folio, von Franzweinzege 00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:00.160 Hans Zeissner in 25 drawings, was released in 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:02.819 1919, the year after his death. And this set 00:28:02.819 --> 00:28:04.680 contained many of his highly erotic drawings. 00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:07.480 Works he had kept largely hidden. Depicting nude 00:28:07.480 --> 00:28:09.859 women, some masturbating, some in sapphic embraces, 00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:12.019 these were drawings that were just as polarizing 00:28:12.019 --> 00:28:13.759 as his paintings when they were exhibited previously. 00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:16.960 Incredibly so. When some of the originals were 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:19.519 exhibited, the public and critics reacted with 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:22.519 open hostility to their frank, unidealized depiction 00:28:22.519 --> 00:28:25.200 of female sexuality. They lacked the decorative 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:27.680 gold overlay that masked the eroticism in his 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:30.700 paintings. This was just pure, raw sexuality 00:28:30.700 --> 00:28:34.079 captured in line. Yet they had an elite, willing 00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:36.559 audience even before the folio release. They 00:28:36.559 --> 00:28:39.859 did. Fifteen of his more lurid drawings were 00:28:39.859 --> 00:28:42.539 selected by a Viennese poet for a private press 00:28:42.539 --> 00:28:45.660 book. It was highly limited, providing Klimt 00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:48.140 with a protected, censorship -proof avenue to 00:28:48.140 --> 00:28:50.579 show his most explicit depictions to a small 00:28:50.579 --> 00:28:53.319 group of highly affluent, mostly male private 00:28:53.319 --> 00:28:55.779 patrons. So his eroticism was always walking 00:28:55.779 --> 00:28:58.319 this tightrope between public scandal and private 00:28:58.319 --> 00:29:00.839 high society consumption. Always. And the final 00:29:00.839 --> 00:29:03.420 major folio, Gustav Klimt, An Aftermath from 00:29:03.420 --> 00:29:06.519 1931, serves as this poignant artistic archive. 00:29:06.799 --> 00:29:08.740 It was intended to finally complete the work 00:29:08.740 --> 00:29:11.579 of the first folio. Right. And it served a vital 00:29:11.579 --> 00:29:13.859 role by including detailed images from destroyed 00:29:13.859 --> 00:29:16.859 works, like Hygieia from the Lost Medicine mural. 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:19.680 And it also contained reproductions of several 00:29:19.680 --> 00:29:22.779 unfinished paintings. It's a somber record, preserving 00:29:22.779 --> 00:29:25.019 the memory of masterpieces that would later be 00:29:25.019 --> 00:29:27.960 physically eradicated. This systematic preservation, 00:29:28.140 --> 00:29:31.099 intentional and accidental, sets the stage perfectly 00:29:31.099 --> 00:29:34.599 for Section V, the high price of legacy. Auctions 00:29:34.599 --> 00:29:37.779 and restitution. Klimt's name is now, you know, 00:29:37.779 --> 00:29:40.259 functionally inseparable from astronomical wealth 00:29:40.259 --> 00:29:42.539 and these profound ethical battles over Nazi 00:29:42.539 --> 00:29:45.160 -looted art. The wealth involved is just staggering. 00:29:45.539 --> 00:29:48.039 And it shows the relentless global demand for 00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:50.640 his work. Klimt's paintings consistently command 00:29:50.640 --> 00:29:53.109 the highest prices in the art market. Even A 00:29:53.109 --> 00:29:55.470 Quiet Landscape, Landhaus in Battersea, sold 00:29:55.470 --> 00:29:59.230 for over $29 million back in 2003. That's 2003 00:29:59.230 --> 00:30:01.529 money for a landscape. But the real pivot moment 00:30:01.529 --> 00:30:04.509 came in 2006, which completely redefined the 00:30:04.509 --> 00:30:06.809 scale of the art market. The sale of Portrait 00:30:06.809 --> 00:30:09.190 of Adele Blockbauer, The Sirth. It changed everything. 00:30:09.390 --> 00:30:11.369 Ronald Lauder purchased it for the New Gallery 00:30:11.369 --> 00:30:14.970 in New York for $135 million. At the time, that 00:30:14.970 --> 00:30:17.329 was a world record for the highest reported price 00:30:17.329 --> 00:30:20.250 ever paid for painting. Momentarily surpassing 00:30:20.250 --> 00:30:23.750 Picasso. This wasn't just a sale. It was a cultural 00:30:23.750 --> 00:30:26.869 event that signaled Klimt's entry into the ultra 00:30:26.869 --> 00:30:29.450 -elite echelon of globally valued artists. And 00:30:29.450 --> 00:30:31.410 the prices have only accelerated since then. 00:30:31.509 --> 00:30:34.869 His final unfinished work, Lady with a Fan, sold 00:30:34.869 --> 00:30:40.269 in London in 2023 for over $108 million. Setting 00:30:40.269 --> 00:30:43.029 the record for the highest -priced artwork ever 00:30:43.029 --> 00:30:45.859 sold at auction in Europe. And that's an unfinished 00:30:45.859 --> 00:30:48.440 work fetching nine figures. But the latest data 00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:50.900 point is truly jaw -dropping. Just recently, 00:30:50.940 --> 00:30:53.880 in November 2025, the full -length portrait of 00:30:53.880 --> 00:30:56.519 Elizabeth Lederer sold at Sotheby's in New York 00:30:56.519 --> 00:31:02.839 for $236 .4 million. $236 .4 million. That said, 00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:05.380 a new auction record for Klimt himself, a record 00:31:05.380 --> 00:31:07.680 for modern art sold at auction, and placed it 00:31:07.680 --> 00:31:09.940 as the second most expensive artwork sold globally 00:31:09.940 --> 00:31:12.940 at auction, behind only Leonardo da Vinci's Salvatore 00:31:12.940 --> 00:31:16.309 Mundi. Klimt like an old master. Exactly. But 00:31:16.309 --> 00:31:18.670 these astronomical valuations can't be separated 00:31:18.670 --> 00:31:20.630 from the immense historical weight of the works. 00:31:20.809 --> 00:31:23.849 No. Many of Klimt's most significant pieces were 00:31:23.849 --> 00:31:26.410 owned by his Jewish patrons, and they have consequently 00:31:26.410 --> 00:31:29.329 been at the epicenter of long, high -profile 00:31:29.329 --> 00:31:33.069 legal battles over Nazi -looted art. The ethical 00:31:33.069 --> 00:31:35.589 provenance of the work is now a fundamental driver 00:31:35.589 --> 00:31:38.390 of its value. The most visible example globally 00:31:38.390 --> 00:31:41.170 is the Altman case, dramatized so successfully 00:31:41.170 --> 00:31:44.059 in the film Woman in Gold. Maria Altman, the 00:31:44.059 --> 00:31:46.319 niece of Adele Blockbauer and her co -heirs, 00:31:46.440 --> 00:31:49.200 fought the Austrian government for years to recover 00:31:49.200 --> 00:31:52.180 five paintings stolen by the Nazis. The legal 00:31:52.180 --> 00:31:54.519 fight was incredibly complex, even reaching the 00:31:54.519 --> 00:31:56.569 U .S. Supreme Court. And the eventual recovery 00:31:56.569 --> 00:31:58.730 of those five restituted paintings, including 00:31:58.730 --> 00:32:01.490 a Del Blockbauer third, an H .A. resulted in 00:32:01.490 --> 00:32:04.329 a collective sale value of over $327 million 00:32:04.329 --> 00:32:07.990 for the heirs. It proved that justice, even decades 00:32:07.990 --> 00:32:10.910 late, could deliver monumental financial returns. 00:32:11.130 --> 00:32:13.529 And that restitution process is far from over. 00:32:13.769 --> 00:32:16.869 Thought. Not at all. It highlights the difficulty 00:32:16.869 --> 00:32:19.549 in tracing provenance for works that passed through 00:32:19.549 --> 00:32:22.690 many hands during the war. Take rose bushes under 00:32:22.690 --> 00:32:25.680 the trees. France only recently agreed to return 00:32:25.680 --> 00:32:28.400 this work to the heirs of Nora Stiasi, a Jewish 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:30.380 art collector who was forced to sell it before 00:32:30.380 --> 00:32:33.220 being murdered by the Nazis in 1942. The complications 00:32:33.220 --> 00:32:35.799 don't just involve sales. They involve errors, 00:32:35.940 --> 00:32:38.799 too. We've seen cases where a different Nazi 00:32:38.799 --> 00:32:41.680 -looted Klimt was mistakenly returned by Austrian 00:32:41.680 --> 00:32:44.460 authorities to the wrong family, leading to years 00:32:44.460 --> 00:32:47.759 of complex, painful ownership disputes. It just 00:32:47.759 --> 00:32:50.240 shows how tangled the history is. Other major 00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.640 works, like the Beethoven Freeze and Water Snakes 00:32:52.640 --> 00:32:55.319 II, have also been the object of ownership disputes. 00:32:55.539 --> 00:32:58.440 This history haunts every major Klimt sale. And 00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:00.900 the sources introduce an entirely new layer of 00:33:00.900 --> 00:33:03.640 ethical and historical complexity, one that links 00:33:03.640 --> 00:33:06.140 Klimt's early portraiture with a colonial context. 00:33:06.440 --> 00:33:08.839 The recently authenticated long -lost portrait 00:33:08.839 --> 00:33:12.519 of Prince William Nii Norti Duona from 1897. 00:33:12.859 --> 00:33:15.519 This is a remarkable story of rediscovery. It 00:33:15.519 --> 00:33:17.539 resurfaced only recently when a couple brought 00:33:17.539 --> 00:33:20.440 a dirty, poorly framed canvas to a gallery. Bearing 00:33:20.440 --> 00:33:24.079 a recognizable Klimt estate stamp. Exactly. And 00:33:24.079 --> 00:33:26.680 our historian authenticated it as a genuinely 00:33:26.680 --> 00:33:29.500 long lost work from his academic transition period. 00:33:29.920 --> 00:33:32.779 an important piece. But the context of its creation 00:33:32.779 --> 00:33:35.380 is what forces us to engage with a very difficult 00:33:35.380 --> 00:33:37.759 history. Absolutely. The portrait was painted 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:40.720 after Klimt visited a völkerschau. A people's 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:43.519 show. Essentially, an ethnographic human zoo 00:33:43.519 --> 00:33:47.680 held at Vienna's Tiergarten in 1897. Prince William 00:33:47.680 --> 00:33:50.700 D's Nordi Dewona, an Osu prince from the Gold 00:33:50.700 --> 00:33:53.839 Coast, modern Ghana, was among 120 members of 00:33:53.839 --> 00:33:56.569 the Osu community being displayed there. So Klimt, 00:33:56.589 --> 00:33:58.289 the artist who claimed to be interested only 00:33:58.289 --> 00:34:00.650 in capturing the truth of other people, created 00:34:00.650 --> 00:34:03.210 this portrait in the setting of a colonial era 00:34:03.210 --> 00:34:06.670 racial exhibition. This discovery forces a critical 00:34:06.670 --> 00:34:08.909 lens onto the sources of artistic inspiration 00:34:08.909 --> 00:34:11.429 in turn of the century Vienna. It demands that 00:34:11.429 --> 00:34:14.309 we look beyond the glittering gold and ask, what 00:34:14.309 --> 00:34:17.269 was the true, often uncomfortable cost of artistic 00:34:17.269 --> 00:34:20.070 inspiration in Vienna at that time? And the legal 00:34:20.070 --> 00:34:22.130 troubles for this rediscovered portrait continue 00:34:22.130 --> 00:34:26.230 right now. The painting, now valued at an estimated 00:34:26.230 --> 00:34:29.530 15 million euros, is currently embroiled in a 00:34:29.530 --> 00:34:32.750 legal dispute. Viennese prosecutors seized the 00:34:32.750 --> 00:34:34.550 painting at the request of Hungarian authorities, 00:34:34.869 --> 00:34:37.960 who allege it was improperly exported. So even 00:34:37.960 --> 00:34:40.440 a newly authenticated piece immediately enters 00:34:40.440 --> 00:34:43.440 the familiar Klimt cycle of high value, complex 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:46.719 provenance, and legal contention. The story of 00:34:46.719 --> 00:34:49.480 Klimt's art really is the story of 20th and 21st 00:34:49.480 --> 00:34:52.199 century wealth, power, and geopolitical struggles. 00:34:52.460 --> 00:34:55.360 Let's wrap up by reflecting on his colossal cultural 00:34:55.360 --> 00:34:58.179 footprint today. His popularity is undeniable. 00:34:58.519 --> 00:35:02.000 His 150th anniversary in 2012 prompted a massive 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:04.659 citywide commemoration in Vienna with exhibitions 00:35:04.659 --> 00:35:07.099 across at least 10 major venues. They celebrated 00:35:07.099 --> 00:35:09.420 him by opening his last studio to the public 00:35:09.420 --> 00:35:12.199 and inaugurating the Klimt Centrum at the Attersee. 00:35:12.340 --> 00:35:14.000 And this commercial appeal has been leveraged 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:16.300 by governments. The Austrian Mint, for instance, 00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:19.480 began a five -coin gold series called Klinked 00:35:19.480 --> 00:35:22.030 and His Women. His imagery is pervasive, crossing 00:35:22.030 --> 00:35:24.550 into high fashion as well. Designers like John 00:35:24.550 --> 00:35:26.809 Galliano for Dior and Alexander McQueen have 00:35:26.809 --> 00:35:29.409 famously cited him as inspiration. And we see 00:35:29.409 --> 00:35:32.429 his influence even in the most important contemporary 00:35:32.429 --> 00:35:35.300 portraiture. Critics have noted the clear influence 00:35:35.300 --> 00:35:38.260 of Klimt, especially the portrait of Adele Blockbauer 00:35:38.260 --> 00:35:41.500 I in Amy Sherald's 2018 portrait of Michelle 00:35:41.500 --> 00:35:44.380 Obama. Really? One commentator even pointed out 00:35:44.380 --> 00:35:46.500 the visual similarity between the patterning 00:35:46.500 --> 00:35:49.400 and the work designed by Klimt's own muse, Emily 00:35:49.400 --> 00:35:53.239 Louise Fluge. His aesthetic has transcended his 00:35:53.239 --> 00:35:56.679 own context to inform modern identity and power. 00:35:57.159 --> 00:35:59.739 Okay, let's synthesize this massive deep dive 00:35:59.739 --> 00:36:02.659 into Gustav Klimt. We've traced his journey from 00:36:02.659 --> 00:36:05.599 a childhood defined by poverty and loss, training 00:36:05.599 --> 00:36:08.179 rigorously to earn the emperor's gold cross of 00:36:08.179 --> 00:36:10.780 merit for academic architectural painting. He 00:36:10.780 --> 00:36:13.280 then fundamentally tore up that imperial contract. 00:36:13.559 --> 00:36:15.960 He used his immense grief and frustration to 00:36:15.960 --> 00:36:17.920 become the radical symbolist who wrapped his 00:36:17.920 --> 00:36:20.440 raw eroticism and pessimistic vision in gold, 00:36:20.619 --> 00:36:22.719 founding the secession movement and establishing 00:36:22.719 --> 00:36:24.679 the essential aesthetic of the fin de siècle. 00:36:25.099 --> 00:36:27.480 And what we must appreciate is the complex duality 00:36:27.480 --> 00:36:30.380 of those gilded works. They represent the pinnacle 00:36:30.380 --> 00:36:32.699 of Art Nouveau aesthetic beauty, pure, decorative 00:36:32.699 --> 00:36:35.960 splendor, born from a desire to escape the ugliness 00:36:35.960 --> 00:36:38.440 of his youth. Yet they are constantly serving 00:36:38.440 --> 00:36:41.440 as stark, powerful reminders of the darkest chapters 00:36:41.440 --> 00:36:44.599 of history. The Spanish flu epidemic that claimed 00:36:44.599 --> 00:36:47.480 his life, the systematic Nazi looting that scattered 00:36:47.480 --> 00:36:50.000 his masterpieces, and the colonial exhibitions 00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:52.440 that formed the backdrop for even his earliest 00:36:52.440 --> 00:36:55.329 portraits. Klimt's legacy is this continuous 00:36:55.329 --> 00:36:58.630 complex intersection of groundbreaking art, staggering 00:36:58.630 --> 00:37:01.969 wealth, and profound legal and ethical questions. 00:37:02.150 --> 00:37:04.869 So here's the provocative thought for you to 00:37:04.869 --> 00:37:06.650 carry forward, something to mull over regarding 00:37:06.650 --> 00:37:09.829 the application of this deep dive. We've established 00:37:09.829 --> 00:37:12.150 that controversy from the sexual outrage of the 00:37:12.150 --> 00:37:14.650 secession and the political fury over the faculty 00:37:14.650 --> 00:37:17.789 paintings to the ongoing ethical battles over 00:37:17.789 --> 00:37:19.989 Nazi restitution and the colonial history of 00:37:19.989 --> 00:37:22.690 the Dewana portrait is what defines Klimt's story. 00:37:22.800 --> 00:37:25.219 If that constant trail of scandal and struggle 00:37:25.219 --> 00:37:27.579 is ultimately what validates his status and drives 00:37:27.579 --> 00:37:31.239 the $236 million price tag today, does the global 00:37:31.239 --> 00:37:34.239 art world now require controversy and moral complexity 00:37:34.239 --> 00:37:37.559 to recognize and validate true artistic genius?