Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907)

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. He is known for his decorative and erotic paintings, which often feature gold leaf and intricate patterns. Klimt’s primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. As he began to develop a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his “golden phase”, many of which include gold leaf.