Yesterday, the exbhibition "Klimt Landscapes" was opened at the Neue Galerie New York. This major exhibition of Gustav Klimt's (1862–1918) idyllic depictions in the landscape genre features significant paintings made while the artist was on his summer holiday in the Austrian countryside. One of Klimt's paintings "Castle in the Lake" was lent by National Gallery Prague. This exhibition situates Klimt’s landscapes in the context of fin-de-siècle fashion, photography, and decorative arts made by the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshops), and is on view through May 6, 2024.
The instalation of this extraordinary work owned by National Gallery Prague in New York was supervised by its restorer Dagmar Konvalinková. This is the first time, that National Gallery Prague provided the renowned Neue Galerie New York with one of the paintings in its possessions.
Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
Water Chateau (Chateau Kammer Attersee I), (1908–1909)
Oil on canvas, 116 x 116 cm National Gallery Prague
Klimt most often employed landscape motifs in his paintings during his summer sojourns. In the years 1900–1916, he and his life companion Emilie Flöge, a fashion designer from Vienna, spent summers by Attersee Lake in the Salzburg region. During these sojourns, Klimt did eleven landscape paintings featuring the lake, including four variants of Kammer Castle. The painting Water Chateau is one of these (1908–1909). For Klimt, these sojourns in nature meant escape from cultural and political confrontations in Vienna. He painted trees, flowers or houses facades across the lake on square-format canvases, but always without people. The painting Water Chateau is reminiscent of the muted colours of the artist’s earlier compositions. The contrast between the bulk of the actual things in the painting’s upper part and their reflection in the water is one of the most striking charms of this work.
Main photo: Gustav Klimt, Kammer Castle on the Attersee I (Castle in the Lake), 1908. National Gallery Prague.
Photo credit: Album / Art Resource, NY
About the exhibition
KLIMT LANDSCAPES
Neue Galerie New York
February 15 – May 6, 2024
This major exhibition of Gustav Klimt's (1862–1918) idyllic depictions in the landscape genre, on view through May 6, 2024.
https://www.neuegalerie.org/klimtlandscapes
Press Release "Klimt Landscapes" can be downloaded:
