All that glistens is not gold except in Gustave Klimt’s paintings

Why did Gustave Klimt use gold leaf so liberally in his painting? That was the question posed by Artnet writer, Katie White last week. She called the answer – Klimt’s father was a goldsmith – “surprising.” But the surprise was her answer.

Saying that Klimt laced his pictures with the precious metal because of his family’s business is like saying that Johannes Vermeer painted “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” because his father was a jeweler.

White got around to the better and long-known answer when she quoted Klimp saying, “All art is erotic.” In effect, he thought gold was sexy. This view was well-annotated by historians Donald Hall and Pat Corrington Wykes in their 1974 book “Subjects and Symbols in Art.”

White acknowledged the half-century-old factoid, calling Klimt “a notoriously amorous man,” adding that he sired “at least 14 children through “hushed affairs.”

A good example of Klimt’s use of gold can be seen in his painting “The Kiss,” where the lovers embrace in robes made to look sweat-soaked by the glistening metal.

Sex is in this picture in another way. White rightly points this out. On the male side of the picture, the gold shapes are upright rectangles, while on the female side, the shapes appear ovoid. Some critics called such things k pornography.

Klimt’s response? “Enough of censorship. I want to break free.” And he did by picturing lavishly embellished half-bare women set in sumptuous ornamentation of golden, jewel-like backgrounds.

His painting “Adele Bloch-Bauer” describes a woman swathed in gold sitting in ornamental profusion. Similarly, In his painting “Salome” shows a semi-nude female entwined in decorative superabundance with the head of a male at her feet, you get a veritable vision of hedonism.

Animalistic was the takeaway of Friederike Beer when she posed for Klimt. (More about that in a moment). In the portrait, she stands in an extravagantly patterned gown and jacket against an extravagantly patterned background.

Even the fur around her neck is turned to show its decorative lining. Only her rouged face stands out. The rest of her melts into a background so flowery, you think you can almost smell perfume.

While Beer’s memory of Klimt ties to his reputation as libidinous, it also reflects his view of himself as a portrait painter:

“The most striking quality about him was perhaps his animalism,” .

He even smelled like an animal... When I went out to Klimt‘s garden house in Hitzig I was really prepared for anything, because I knew how eccentric he was with that beard and always going about in a sort of monk’s robe and sandals...

“

“But when he opened the door for me, I wasn’t prepared for one thing! He wore a big monocle in one eye and looked me sedately up and down without saying anything! Finally, he said to me, ’What do you want to come to me for? You have just had your portrait done by a very good painter.’ (Egon (Egon Schiele).

“I was afraid he was going to turn me down and so I answered quickly that yes, this was certainly true, but that through Klimt I wanted to be made immortal, and he accepted that.”

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