Gustav Klimt’s Lost Paintings
Artworks by Gustav Klimt:
(Click on images to view them individually.)
“If you can’t please everyone with your deeds and art, please just a few.” – Gustav Klimt
A couple years ago I was rifling through the art section of a book store, and I came across information about several Gustav Klimt paintings that had been lost or destroyed over time. Most had been intentionally destroyed by German agents at the end of World War II. Other paintings were taken away from their Jewish owners as the manifestations of the Holocaust swept across Europe.
When I read the information, I was emotionally surprised by how upset I was at learning about artworks that had been lost forever. The weight of that experience taught me more about how much I appreciate some art.
As you might reasonably infer, I love Klimt’s artworks. They are incandescent, poignant, and hopefully everlasting. So, when I learned some had been destroyed, my heart sunk.
Here are Some of Klimt’s Paintings That Have Been Destroyed Over Time:
“Jurisprudence”:
(I believe the above drawing still exists even though the above finished painting does not.)
“Medicine”:
“The Girl Friends” (aka “Women Friends”):
“Schubert at the Piano”:
“Leda”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leda_and_the_Swan
In pre-1945, the above paintings were not photographed in color, so while the colorized versions are pleasant to look at, and may be represenative of the originals, they are most likely not the same colors as the original paintings.
Other destroyed or missing paintings include “Malcesine on Lake Garda” and a portrait of Serena Lederer’s mother.
There is another Klimt painting entitled “Wally” (of Valerie (Wally) Neuzil, a woman) that I’ve only seen a 3/4 view in a photo. I’ve been unable to ever see a straight-on picture of it, so I presume it has been lost or destroyed. In the same photo, an older Serena Lederer (older than she appears in her younger portrait by Klimt) stands proudly in front of 4 of her Klimt paintings, one of her (Portrait of Serena Lederer (1899)) , one of her daughter (Portrait of Elisabeth Bachofen-Echt (1914) ) , one titled “Golden Apple Tree”, and one of “Wally” – a model who also worked with artist Egon Schiele.
In doing the research for this post (which took way longer than I estimated because more and more fascinating & beautiful artworks kept rising up), I discovered that Federal Judge Michael B. Mukasey (Yes, that Mukasey – the soon-to-be new U.S. Attorney General) ruled on a dispute of one of Schiele’s paintings: ”Portrait of Wally” (the same “Wally,” but a painting by Schiele). A 2002 Forbes article explaining that dispute can be found here. That dispute in federal court appears to still be ongoing as noted in this year’s New York Times article here.
Michael B. Mukasey on Wikipedia
If you don’t think Klimt’s ideas and work mattered, then attempt to name one of his contempary fellow Austrian citizens from that era.
Sadly, some of his art has been lost, but hopefully it will not be forgotten.
Viewing many more of Klimt’s artworks today (in selecting the few above), this idea came to mind:
“Visual arts work often because many people prefer to ’see’ protest in action rather than to read about it.”
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If you know of other examples of quality art that have been lost, I’d enjoy hearing those stories or seeing images of the lost artworks. About 5 years ago, I remember happily reading a tragic book showing grand buildings from the 1700s through the mid 1900s that had all either been demolished or destroyed over time. I enjoy the experience of seeing works of art that no longer exist.
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13 comments so far
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Dear Sia:
Thank you for sharing these amazing Klimt images. I am a huge Klimt fan. (My Amazon avatar is Klimt’s “The Kiss.”)
It would take a long time to explain why I love his work so much, but I can boil it down to this:
With tangible colors and shades, he captures how I think it looks it my brain when I think, remember, feel, and dream. He captures the moments when from the soup of my being, tiny smudges of light, color, and dark coalesce into awareness…and then blend back in to the milieu.
Were it not for your blog, its highly likely I might never have seen them.
JG
Klimt is my most favourite artist….I love your blog, and right now I’m so amazed at all this information that you’ve provided, that I fear I’m rambling….so thank you for this great post, thank you for all of your great posts….
Chantal
Hi,
Just came across our blog as I am researching for an essay I am writing on Klimts Goldfish, these three faculty paintings (Philosophy, Medicine & Jurisprudence) are an essential part of the story behind Goldfish.
I to was very upset at the thought these works that were so important both from Klimts artist progression but also the questions they raised at the time within Austrian society.
I have a few books but have found Frank Whitford, Klimt published by Thames and Hudson very insightful.
Tracey
SIA: Thank you Tracey. I look forward to reading Mr. Whitford’s work. And if you’d like to email your writing on Klimt’s goldfish when it is done, I’d enjoy reading that also.
who has the negatives or photo prints of theses paintings ? were the photos taken when the paintings were first displayed , or closer to their destruction ? are their records of what colours were prominent ? any answers would be helpful .
are there any extreme high quality images of these paintings available ?
I’m an artist who’s been influenced subconsciously by Klimt in a big way, even though my work is divergent.
Who can explain the magic he tapped into? His work is a fine example of art “Expressing the inexpressible.” Not my phrase, but one I can easily apply to his work.
Where can I get higher res digital or better images of the phots you show here? I’m powerfully drawn to them, even in black and white.
thank you
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OneMoreOption: “Expressing the inexpressible” Yes, that’s a lovely description. At least Klimt tried to express what is/was inexpressible. Maybe enough people have thought that he successfully came close enough to achieving those intents to make his hard and rebellious works worthwhile. I hope so.
I would like to know where the painting “Hope 11 Detail” by Gustav Klimt was found. Also, why was it created and who did it belong to. And how did it end up in the MOMA in New York City. What was the era and style of the compositon and was there controversy surrounding it.
I love this painting so much and must know as much of it’s origin as possible.
Thank you.
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OneMoreOption: Interesting questions. I don’t know the answers.
Note: the Klimt faculty images (medicine, jurisprudence, philosophy) were not destroyed by the Nazis but by allied bombing raids. They were murals on the ceiling of the room in which the University of Vienna grants the doctoral degrees.
Here’s a picture of the room, with the restored murals:
http://homepage.univie.ac.at/peter.wienerroither/pwfoga/20070417-024.jpg
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OneMoreOption: I hear you. The website for the University of Vienna (you site above) does not specify who destroyed 3 of the 4 paintings. Rather, it states:
“On the ceiling of the Main Ceremonial Chamber, there is the centrepiece “Triumph of Light” (Franz Matsch), framed by black-and-white reproductions of the faculty picture “Theology” (also by Franz Matsch) and “Philosophy”, “Medicine” and “Jurisprudence” by Gustav Klimt. The three originals by Gustav Klimt were burnt at the end of the Second World War. The original version of “Theology” has survived and hangs in the Dean’s office of the Faculty of Roman Catholic Theology.”
Also, “restored murals” is not the best word choice, as the current murals on the ceiling contain no parts of the originals; rather, they are complete reproductions of the originals.
This is a lovely post. I think those three lost Klimt university paintings are some of his most powerful work. I do want to point out, however, that we should all be able to name at least one of Klimt’s contemporaries: Sigmund Freud. Interpretation of Dreams was published in 1900. Klimt probably didn’t know his work, but both men were exploring the unacknowledged urges of human sexuality. Or maybe you meant to suggest how many of Klimt’s contemporaries are worthy of our notice. It was an amazing time.
PS From Klimt.eu website re the three university paintings: “In 1943, after a final exhibition, they were moved to Schloss Immendorf, a castle in Lower Austria, for protection. In May 1945 the paintings were destroyed as retreating German SS forces set fire to the castle to prevent it falling into enemy hands. All that remains now are preparatory sketches and a few photographs, most notably that of one focusing solely on Hygieia. Only one photograph remains of the complete painting of Medicine, taken just before it was destroyed.”
Fire at Immendorf Castle , Lower Austria, 1945.
As part of my private research on the life and places associated with Gustav Klimt, I came across your informative article regarding the destruction of these Klimt ( and Egon Schiele) masterpieces. As a collector of many books about Gustav Klimt, I have found one book that attempts to shed new light on the fire and how the artworks became lost (accept for photographs) after the war.
In his 1992 book, Gustav Klimt : from Drawing to Painting, noted Klimt scholar, Christian M. Nebehay ,writes about interviews he conducted with the Baron Jonannes Freudenthal family who owned and lived on the destroyed property. ( See pages 76-78) From this research, Mr Nebehay , believes the Russians were in control and in residence of the Immerdorf Castle , when the initial fire started mysteriously. The German SS troops had fled before the Russian troops arrived, leaving the castle intact, according to a German officer who was there before the Russians.
His interviews further state, that the Russian troops left the castle seeking help to put the fire out. No help arriving, the owners fought to contain the first fire and put it out. Days later , the fire erupted again, this time burning the entire castle, including the art works stored there for “safe-keeping” by the Germans.
Mr. Nebehay further writes to perhaps dispute the dates of the fires.
And then in a most heart breaking paragraph (for this reader) tells of a witness seeing the charred Klimt paintings dissolve into fine ash in the wind.
So… was it the Germans, (bad guys?) Russians (forces of good to end WW2?) or some accident? The result to the world of the lost of truly Klimt’s greatest work, is the same.
I am currently studying a photograph found on the internet that is titled- Schloss (Castle) Immendorf -1941. It appears to be of neo-gothic architectural style, as Christian Nabehay describes the castle to be, in his book. I also found, just today, images in Yahoo search, that may be of the same building. ( Immendorf is also a German city as well as a village area in Lower Austria. One has to be careful.) I have found the general area where the Castle Immendorf once stood on Google Earth. I need to do more research of my own as to determine whether I have the correct building as it looked before the fire. I would be grateful to anyone else that might have more clues regarding these events.
Thanks for the great article! I will be glad to share any information I discover, further.
Best wishes- Paul
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OneMoreOption: Thank you very much Paul for sharing your research and taking the time to write it clearly.
Oh, my! No matter how much you love Klimt’s work, to state that his is the single most memorable name from his time period in Vienna is crazy! In addition to the aforementioned Freud, many of us reading this will also know the names of Otto Wagner, Josef Hoffmann, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and the one everyone familiar European History of the 20th Century will think of first – Franz Ferdinand! You’re letting your extreme admiration for a fine artist cloud your vision.
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OneMoreOption: Hi Mary. Welcome. I did not say, as you suggest in your comment, that Klimt “is the single most memorable name from his time period in Vienna.” I said, “If you don’t think Klimt’s ideas and work mattered, then attempt to name one of his contempary fellow Austrian citizens from that era.” Now, nearly 2 years after this was originally posted, you are the first and only person to name some of Klimt’s famous contemporaries.
Even considering your list, only one person’s life’s work is clearly more “known” or “famous” or “remembered” than Klimt’s – that being Freud. The other artists, designers, and politicians are not as well known outside of Europe. Schiele (who is mentioned in the post above) is almost as famous in artistic circles, but not in popular culture. And if you gave your list of names to 1,000 university graduates, who were 10 years out of university, and you asked them to complete the following: In a simple sentence, name who this person was and what their life’s work focused on, Klimt would still be second only to Freud.
For example: Franz Ferdinand was a ___________ whose life’s work focused on _______________.
Many people might know his assassination started WW I, but I’d estimate 98% could not name something signficant he created or worked on in his lifetime. Kokoschka, Hoffman, and Wagner are notable, but not nearly as known or remembered.
I respectfully disagree with you. I do not think I have let my admiration cloud my perceptions or declaratons.
@ “Mary P”
4:05 PM CST
Well, I must say a few comments here and especially you “Mary P.” have gotten way off topic, attempting to grow mixed fruits on the same tree. OneMoreOption was discussing the work of a major proponent and one of the founding members of the Vienna Succession; only one of many Symbolist painters… of several Symbolists’ schools.
I didn’t see OMO’s challenge as unreasonable.
A lost work of a great Symbolist painter is the subject here, Klimt’s symbolism; though regrettably “Symbolism” is not directly alluded to, by anyone on this post that I can tell.
Where is Adriana when I need her.
Klimt was neither a politician of prominent royalty or an architect. And Kokoschka was an Expressionist, perhaps a very great one I might add, but he was not a Symbolist artist. Egon Schiele was just a bad artist, equivalent to a rock star groupie. Freud was a shrink; his windy “Interpretation of Dreams” was an overblown clinical treatise and dry examination, not a great work of “Symbolist” fiction writing; though some would argue the “fiction” part I’m sure. Many of Freud’s opiate induced, meandering ruminations (bless his heart) are now summarily rejected by today’s shrinks; not that this carries any great weight either.
In the interest of disowning national boundaries, which the artists on your small list would be prone to do on their better days, might I suggest a more plausible artistic lineage that would be more apropos and instructive rather than just pulling out any Austrian name out of our hat. I will stay close to your turf on a couple occasions, if that will settle you :
Anton Wiertz (1806-1865), the great Belgian academic painter, and arguably the most historically direct precursor of ALL 19th and 20th century Symbolism.
Arnold Böcklin (Swiss/1827-1901) hands down, the greatest academic Symbolist master & painter of the greatest Symbolist self-portrait, EVER…don’t even think of arguing this one…
Fernand Khnopff (1858-1901), another Belgian, parsecs ahead of Klimt.
…Moving due Northwest to Edvard Munch (1863-1944), the great (albeit confused) Symbolist/Expressionist/Surrealist…
George Fredrick Watts (1817-1904) English… descriptive attempts are insulting…
Elihu Vedder (1836_1923) American…his oils were way ahead of his illustrations…
Moving on to writers : Kafka (not Freud) comes to mind; /Swiss/the greatest of the Symbolist writers/again, don’t argue. Other writers were certainly great, but there’s not enough room here…
…Now finally we are faced with one living, breathing giant of course, H.R. Giger, Swiss, who owes his stunning vision to all these Symbolist masters, and many more.
This is all undergrad level art appreciation class folks.
And judging strictly by an entire century of museum participation and global based auctions, , Klimt was at least Austria’s most important painter of the Vienna Succession.
Before anyone knee jerks to the next conclusion about my tastes, I’m not all that goo-goo gah gah over Klimt myself; I’ve never read or known that any one “art scholar” (an oxymoron) reserve Klimt’s work as “the best” or exemplary from the many Symbolists painters’ movements. Most of his works barely rise above the level of Art Nouveau decoration, co-mingled by his obsessive modeling of one female; not so ironically in the same tradition of his immediate artistic predecessors, the more influential Pre-Raphaelites. You may recall Dante Rossetti in my comparison, no doubt, and again, let’s not forget my favorite living Symbolist, Giger, (b. 1940) a living breathing giant.
In Klimt’s defense I will say there is no doubt that he had a firm grasp on the modus vivendi of all the major Symbolist movements; namely, the transcendence of Death over Beauty/Life and all of Mans’ artificial constructs. I concur with some of the posts here; that this lost “faculty” work of Klimt (perhaps not a misnomer; but “allegory” would be better suited as a broad description) exemplifies his comprehension. But alas, a substantial body of his works fails to meet his own standard embodied in this admittedly tragic loss of what may well have been his greatest work.
And for all the speculations set down here about who really “caused” the destruction, I’m a bit nonplussed; the matter is essentially moot. (If in fact, someone came back to the castle and restarted the fire, that might give us a clue; what vested interest would the Russians have in making certain the castle was burned to the ground ? That sounds more like Nazi zealotry than Russian mindset.) Given the mad zeitgeist template imposed by a mad dictator, who himself purloined the nome de plume of an earlier period, the so-called “Decadent Art” of Belle Epoch, in order to justify his psychotic rampage on all artists and art. We must not forget that it was Hitler himself who was rejected from the Austrian academic art community. I’m very skeptical of the statement of a German officer “reporting” that the SS officers had already fled before the Russian’s arrived. It is more likely the case that the German soldiers themselves started the fire, before they fled…it would only take one fanatic to return and finish the job; unless you’re more inclined to believe Hitler’s earlier rejection from Viennese academic circles is a mere coincidence of history.
In the end, the work is gone, and this is one of the few instances, (very few I can assure you) of lost great masterpieces where we are, at the least, fortunate enough to have a photographic record (albeit black & white) of a great work of art.
Incidentally, the tribute to Schubert, faux color notwithstanding, is very haunting.
A little perspective folks. Let’s not get off track again, or I will come back.
I promise you.
Saint James
10/27/09
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omo: Thank you. I often enjoy encountering smarter and more educated people. So much to learn.
those paintings are incredible!!! Too bad the originals are burned and we cannot see them in color. Just another thing that the Nazis felt threatened by so they had to get rid of it!!! A society that thought critically was not their thing.