Hygeia

Trained as an architectural painter, Gustav Klimt paintings contributed to the interior decorations of numerous public buildings in Vienna. Among the more famous cases are the faculty paintings he completed for the University of Vienna in the years 1900-07. The three paintings, Medicine, Philosophy and Jurisprudence, covered three central faculties at the school. The paintings were unfortunately all destroyed by retreating SS forces in May 1945.

 

The second of the three works was unveiled at the tenth Secession Exhibition in 1901. This work covered Medicine. In the painting we find a river of life running in the upper part, with a floating girl and her newborn symbolizing life and a skeleton within the river of life symbolizing its ties to death. In the lower part of the painting, we find Hygeia, the Greek goodness of health, cleanliness and sanitation and daughter of the god of medicine. Standing there in her red robes, the Aesculapius snake is wrapped around her arm while she is holding the cup of Lethe in her hand (the drinking of which results in the loss of memory). A photo of Hygeia taken before the destruction of the painting ensures that we have a clear view of how this masterful depiction looked.

 

In the painting, we see Hygeia somewhat turning her back to mankind. She seems aloof and somewhat abstracted. Combined with the river of life present, it provides a sort of an ambiguous unity of life and death in the painting. This ambiguous unity was interpreted as a lacking role for medicine in curing the sick and preventing death. The piece was thus widely criticized for this when it was first revealed. The faculty paintings were also accused of being perverted and pornographic, though that is hardly unusual for works of Klimt at this time.

 

Still, the look and pose of Hygeia is one of power and deferred interest. She looks majestic in her red robe with golden symbols, as she considers her interest in what lays before her. It is a true Klimt master piece and one that highly deserves reproduction, so that we can once again enjoy its forceful beauty.

Birch Forest (Buchenwald)

Looking at the works of Gustav Klimt, it is clearly his use of gold, his symbolism and to a certain extend his femme fatales that stand out. Klimt painted The Kiss, Judith I and Adele Bloch-Bauer I and II and all of these paintings stand out as highly unique masterpieces.

However, not all of Klimt’s paintings were equally golden, equally erotic or equally full of direct symbolism. A good example of a completely different painting from is Birch Forest (Buchenwald) painted by Klimt in 1901. There is no gold, no woman and no direct symbols, unless the trees themselves are seen as such.

However, some of Klimt’s trademarks still remain. The painting is first of all decently sized at 110x110 cm. The second is Klimt’s technique. The trees are almost combinations of rectangles, the leaves carefully yet numerously rendered, not unlike the flower bed in The Kiss but in greater detail. The base of the trees are similarly colored in the manner of the background from The Kiss, with an almost foggy combination of the same colors, almost like pointillism without points, instead applying varied shapes. As such, even in this beautiful forest depiction, the work of Klimt is still visible, indeed shines through.

The Birch Wood can today be found on display at the Wolfgang-Gurlitt-Museum in Germany. 

Judith carrying the head of Holofernes

Painted by Gustav Klimt in 1901, the painting depicts Judith carrying the head of Holofernes. See more Gustav Klimt reproductions.

Originally told in the Book of Judith, Judith was a beautiful resourceful Israelite widow at the time when the Israelites were occupied by the Assyrians. With her maid she went to the camp of the Assyrian leader, General Holofernes, where she ingratiated herself while promising secret intel about her countrymen. Once she had gotten close enough to the general, she entered his tent one night while he was drunk and cut off his head and brought the head back to her countrymen. Fearful at the loss of their leader, the Assyrians dispersed and Israel was saved.

The painting by Klimt shows Judith carrying the head of Holofernes, thought the head in left in the lower right corner of the painting, allowing us to instead focus on Judith. She is wearing a flowing veil that unveils more than it covers, thus exposing her naked breast. Her eyes are half closed and her lips slightly parted, given the impression of almost sexual satisfaction with her deed. Klimt’s Judith is indeed a femme fatale, a vamp before that expression was ever invented.

Judith’s veil and the background meanwhile feature the gold and symbols that became Klimt’s trademark.

Judith I by Klimt is in the collection of Österreichische Galerie in Vienna, Austria.