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About the Artist

Gustav Klimt was born in Vienna, Austria on July 14th, 1862. He was one of seven children and was the son of Ernst and Anna Klimt. Gustav became interested in art at a very young age, and by the time he was fourteen he had earned a scholarship to Vienna's Kunstgewerbeschule-a school of arts and crafts.
While still in school, Klimt, his older brother Ernst, and a close friend of theirs assisted their school instructor with commissioned pieces. In 1883, Klimt left school and was hired by many to paint murals. At his point in his life, Klimt had absolutely on trouble finding work. Gustav painted a lot of the decorative work for Vienna's main art museum, and in 1887 was commissioned to paint the interior view of the old Burgtheatre. Just one year later, he was awarded the Golden Cross Merit. In 1890, Klimt began work on the staircase in the museum of Art History of Vienna and was the first person to receive the newly credited Imperial Award for his work in the auditorium. (Artists. Pg. 188-195)

Hard Times

Just because Gustav had a plethora of work and received several awards does not mean that his life was perfect or anything close to it. In 1878, there was an economic depression. (Artists. Pg. 192-193) Going through a depression at the young age of sixteen had to have been tough. Also, Klimt's mother Anna and sister Klara were both very mentally unstable and were very hard to cope with. In the summer of 1892, Klimt's father suffered a stroke and
Died due to complications that were directly related top that incident. As if that was not hard enough on the family, his brother Ernst died in December of that same year. (Larouse Dictionary of Painters. Pg. 205)

Relationships

Gustav Klimt was never married; nor did he like to make statements about his beliefs and/or his personal life. (Klimt pg.257) Because of this fact, it is very difficult to say what really went on in his private life. Klimt was always very close to his sister-in-law Emilie Floge. (Artists pg. 64-65) The two were introduced by Klimt's brother and soon became great friends. Nobody really knows what exactly the relationship between Klimt and Emilie was, but it was most likely a romantic one. Emilie was his muse. For a man who loved to and would almost only paint women, Emilie was definitely his favorite model to depict. Klimt always said that he never painted any self-portraits, but is speculated that the painting "The Kiss" is actually a self-portrait of Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floge themselves.

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