“Water Serpents II” by Gustav Klimt, limited reproduction

When Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was already a renowned artist, having decisively shaped the Art Nouveau style of Vienna's Ringstrasse with his murals and being a co-founder of the Vienna Secession, his "Golden Style" emerged. Inspired by Byzantine mosaics, he incorporated ornamental areas of color into a golden background like set gemstones. In his pictorial programs, Klimt depicts the human life cycle, which, negatively influenced by primal urges, finds its redemption in the kiss. The depictions of the human form possess a subtle eroticism, even though the figures dissolve into ornamental, geometric planes of color. He applied this stylistic principle not only to his depictions of couples but also to portraits of wealthy women and landscapes. This flat, planar style is now synonymous with Klimt's intensely colorful art, which, however, only began to characterize his work from 1905 onward.