Golden Boy Gustav Klimt. Inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin, Matisse...

Golden Boy Gustav Klimt. Inspired by Van Gogh, Rodin, Matisse… explores how Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) developed his unique style and how the Austrian artist was inspired by the work of Van Gogh, Toorop, Rodin, Whistler, Toulouse-Lautrec, Monet, Matisse and many other artists. New research has revealed which artists influenced Klimt, and which he admired. Klimt co-founded the Vienna Secession art society, where European modern art was exhibited for the first time in 1898. From then on, each exhibition organised by the society offered Klimt a new wave of inspiration and creativity.

Dozens of Klimt's iconic masterpieces are on display in this large-scale exhibition: from decorative landscape paintings and powerful figure drawings to monumental, colourful female portraits such as Judith (1901), Emilie Flöge (1902) and spectacular paintings such as Water Serpents II (1904/1906-07).

One of the highlights of the exhibition is the life-sized reproduction of the Beethoven Frieze. Klimt presented this mural in the Secession in 1902 as an homage to Symphony No. 9 by Beethoven, the definitive cult figure of the new generation. The monumental Beethoven Frieze represents the start of Klimt’s ‘golden period’, in which he used gold leaf in his paintings.