(b Baumgarten, nr. Vienna, 14 July 1862; d Vienna, 6 Feb. 1918). Austrian painter, draughtsman, and designer, one of the leading figures in one of the most exciting epochs of Vienna's cultural history. Early in his career he was highly successful as a painter of lavish ornamental schemes in the grandiose tradition of Makart, whose staircase decoration in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna he completed after Makart's death in 1884. In spite of his official academic successes, Klimt was drawn to avant-garde art, and his work was influenced by Impressionism, Symbolism, and Art Nouveau. Discontent with the conservative attitudes of the Viennese Artists' Association led him and a group of friends to resign in 1897 and set up their own organization, the Sezession, of which he was elected president.

Text source: The Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford University Press)


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