 Viennese
painter, who was the founder of the Vienna Secession, the Austrian art
nouveau movement. His early work, consisting principally of large murals
for theaters, was painted in an unremarkable naturalistic style. After
1898, Klimt's work moved toward greater innovation and imagination, taking
on a more decorative, symbolic aspect. He continued to paint murals, but
the harsh public criticism of the three murals Philosophy, Medicine, and
Jurisprudence (1900-1902, Vienna University; destroyed 1945) led him to
concentrate on panel painting. Klimt's best-known works are his later
portraits, such as Frau Fritsa Reidler (1906, Österreichische Galerie,
Vienna), with their flat, unshadowed surfaces, translucent, mosaic colors
and forms, and sinuous, curling background lines and patterns. Among his
most admired works is the series of mosaic murals (1905-1909) in the Palais
Stoclet, an opulent private mansion in Brussel designed by the architect
Josef Hoffmann, who was also a member of the Vienna Secession movement.
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