Lithograph on paper
Austria, around 1900
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) - Austrian painter and graphic artist
On the left margin printed monogram ‘GK’
Ex Libris of the Association of Austrian Artists, Secession, title page of ‘Ver Sacrum’
Matted and framed under glass
Black wooden frame with silvered trim
Sheet dimensions: 10.7 x 5.2 cm
Good condition
Provenance: Private collection, Germany
Klimt is considered the most well-known exponent of the Vienna Secession and a major pioneer of modernism. The current highest auction record for a poster of the Vienna Secession depicting the same motif is more than €27,000

The Vienna Secession was established in 1897 as a spin-off from the Vienna Künstlerhaus, and Gustav Klimt was its first president. The members of the Secession propagated a new era in the art and rejected its conservative definition based on the historicism. The Journal of the Secessionist style, ‘Ver Sacrum’, put, for instance, innovative standards in the graphic design. The present Ex Libris is a cover designed by Gustav Klimt for the ‘Ver Sacrum’ magazine. The Ex Libris movement has been driven mainly by the Association of Austrian Artists (Wiener Secesssion) and sat on a revival of book culture.

The sheet bears the printed monogram ‘GK’ to the left margin, being mounted under a mat to three edges in a glazed black wooden frame. It is in good condition, showing slight pressure marks. The sheet dimensions are 10.7 x 5.2 cm. The overall dimensions, including the frame, are 37.5 x 29 cm.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)

Gustav Klimt was supposed to become gold engraver like his father, but thanks to a scholarship he was allowed to study at the Vienna School of Applied Arts. In 1891, he became a member of the Wiener Künstlerhaus. After he left, he became the co-founder and temporarily president of the Vienna Secession, for whose journal he provided numerous designs and illustrations. Klimt was a close friend of Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser, the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte. Thus he was commissioned to design the famous frieze in the dining room of the Stoclet Palais in Brussels. Between 1907 and 1908, Klimt created his most famous painting ‘The Kiss’. Klimt was one of the most controversial, but also most popular artists of the turn of the century. Although his works were initially dismissed as decorative painting, he is now considered one of the quintessential forerunners of modernism. His works are part of major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the MoMA, the Tate Gallery, the Belvedere and the Secession in Vienna. In 2006, the portrait ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer I’ was purchased by the founder of the Neue Galerie in Manhattan for the record price of 135 million dollars, the hitherto highest price ever paid for a painting.

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