Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His primary subject was the female body, and his work is marked by frank eroticism and an ornamental, often gilded surface treatment drawn from Byzantine mosaics.

His "Golden Phase" produced his most celebrated works, including "The Kiss" and "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I". Both combine richly patterned decoration with naturalistic figures and have become enduring icons of early twentieth-century art.