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Bauernhaus mit Birken signed 'GUSTAV KLIMT' (lower right) oil on canvas 31 5/8 x 31 5/8 in. (80.3 x 80.3 cm.) Painted in 1900 PROVENANCE Estate of the artist. Galerie Miethke, Vienna. Georg Lasus, Vienna. Josef Danilowatz, Vienna (by descent from the above). Mr. Friede, Vienna (acquired from the above through Lukas Galerie, Vienna, 1939). Gustav Ucicky, Vienna (possibly acquired from the above). ™sterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna (donated by the above, by 1961). Restituted to the heirs of Georg Lasus, November 2000. LITERATURE ed. Mitteilungen der Vereinigung K쳌nstler ™sterreichs, Ver Sacrum, vol. 4, 1901, p. 209. L. Hevesi, Acht Jahre Sezession, Vienna, 1906, p. 318. H. Bahr and P. Altenberg, Das Werk Gustav Klimt, Leipzig, 1914, installment I, pl. 7 (illustrated). M. Eisler, Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1920, p. 21 (illustrated, pl. 8). M-J. Liechtenstein, 'Gustav Klimt und seine ober”sterreichischen Salzkammergutlandschaften', in Ober”sterreichische Heimatbl„tter, vol. 5 (no. 3/4), 1951, no. 9. E. Pirchan, Gustav Klimt, Vienna, 1956. Mitteilungen der ™sterreichischen Galerie, vol. 5, 1961, no. 49 (illustrated, fig. 4). F. Novotny and J. Dobai, Gustav Klimt London, 1968, p. 317, no. 110 (illustrated, pl. 22). W. Hofmann, Gustav Klimt, Salzberg, 1971, no. 16 (illustrated in color). J. Dobai and S. Coradeschi, L'Opera completa di Klimt, Milan, 1978, p. 99, no. 97 (illustrated; illustrated again in color, pl. XVI). H. Czernin, Die Faelschung. Der Fall Bloch-Bauer und das Werk Gustav Klimts, Vienna, 1999, vol. 2, p. 421. S. Partsch, Klimt, Life and Work, London, 1999, pp. 98 and 103, no. 30 (illustrated in color, p. 100). EXHIBITION (probably) Vienna, Kunstschau, Secession X, Spring 1901, no. 93. (probably) Vienna, Kunstschau, XVIII Ausstellung, Secession Klimt, November-December 1903, no. 33. Vienna, ™sterreichische Galerie, Gustav Klimt, October-December 1962, no. 9. NOTES Klimt turned to landscape painting relatively late in his career. His first landscape pictures, dating from circa 1898-1899 ( cf. Novotny/Dobai 98-99 and 106-107), find Klimt employing a vertical format and depicting the landscape in a symbolist manner redolent of the work of the Belgian Symbolist, Fernand Khnopff. "Somber, mysterious, with an indefinable air of allegory, they seem to embody the essence of the master's early work" (P. Vergo, Art in Vienna, 1898-1918, London, 1975, p. 79). From 1900 onward, Klimt's landscapes are, without exception, in a format approximately 1 meter square. "The majority have an extremely high horizon line, or lack of one altogether, so that their subjects, whether flower beds, woods or meadows, seem to unfurl before the eye from the top to bottom of the canvas, more like tapestries...than paintings" (F. Whitford, Klimt, London, 1990, p. 184). The early years of this century saw dramatic upheavals in the avant-garde movement in Vienna. In 1897 Klimt founded the Secession, following the example of the previously established Munich Secession as an autonomous association of young artists who felt stifled by the conservative bias of the old-fashioned, hierarchical Viennese K쳌nstlerhaus. The Secession brought together painters and sculptors of all styles, as well as designers, graphic artists, architects and typographers. One of their primary objectives was to show contemporary foreign art in Vienna. The Secession had a galvanizing effect on Viennese cultural life and established a distinct "Viennese style" internationally. The close collaboration with designers and craftsmen such as Josef Hoffmann and Josef-Maria Ollbrich further inspired the development of ornamentation in Klimt's work, which was to have an important effect on his treatment of landscape. In the present work, light brushstrokes dot the landscape with flashes of color much in the same way Klimt experimented with gold and silver, inlay and semi-precious stones in later paintings and friezes. Klimt's landscapes echo his portrait paintings in many ways. Not only is the similarity of technique and penchant for ornamentation plainly evident in works such as Bauernhaus mit Birken, but even more striking is the manner in which Klimt's landscapes assume an anthropomorphic nature. The tall, wavering birch trees closely resemble the arrangement of figures in both the ceiling panels Philosophie, 1899-1907 (fig. 1) and Medizin, 1900-1907 (fig. 2). In the present work, Klimt seems to be consciously working in parallel with the portrait, imbuing the subject matter with a human quality despite the overall absence of such. It is notable that Klimt's landscapes are almost always devoid of human presence and that his portraits almost always represent figures in an enclosed, hermetic setting without illusions to landscape or nature. As Frank Whitford has observed: It might be thought that nature provided Klimt with subjects more congenial to his temperament and better suited to his style than portraits: the individuality of his sitters ultimately resisted all his attempts to subjugate them to the tyranny of decoration. Nature is more amenable to such treatment; lakes, flower beds, forests and meadows more obviously provide the basis for elaborate stylisation and patternmaking than do human beings, no matter how extravagantly dressed. ( Ibid., p. 177) Nature played an important role in Klimt's art, not only for the reason that one-quarter of his output consists of landscapes or because of the symbiotic relationship of his landscapes and his portrait pictures. As Christian Nebehay has observed, "He saw in the landscape the means of entering a mood, a sort of creative stimulus like a 'jewel', or a 'firework', he saw the landscape's structure and the unfolding of elemental biological life forces, but the secret of his art as a landscape painter lies in the manner in which these different ways of seeing are layered and interlaced...the landscape was for him a place of contemplation, source of joy but also of sorrow" (quoted in S. Partsch, op. cit. p. 288). Johannes Dobai, further remarking upon the intensity of the artist's landscapes, writes: The locus of Klimt's thematic material is the erotic, which branches into its sexual and biological aspects. The predilection toward the erotic can be noted both in figural compositions and in landscape... The early landscapes often show a swamp, or a glistening water surface; later they become close-ups of vegetation, transformed into a rich and sensuous surface. Paintings of gardens are frequent. The theme of the profusion was well known in Vienna; but Klimt's constantly repeated ornamentalised leaves and flowers stress the unfree and predetermined aspect of the biological world...after 1900 [he] often made use of the pointillist technique, transformed into a pervasive luminous vibration. In other landscapes, a construction of parallel planes of foliage suggests the experience of isolation and alienation. This 'manneristic distance' is heightened by the luxuriance of Klimt's colour. In effect, the panerotic quality of the figurative pictures, which caused a great deal of protest, including a parliamentary investigation, was consistently carried through in Klimt's landscapes. (J. Dobai, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, New York, 1965, pp. 23-24) Klimt was not only interested in the faithful representation of effects of light and atmosphere-- his paintings are rooted in what he saw, but they also go beyond that initial impression. Through the use of design and texture, pattern and color, Klimt transformed and fixed a fleeting world into an indisputable paradise. Surviving documents from the Lasus family contributed to the restitution of Bauernhaus mit Birken (figs. 3 and 4). In November 1939, Josef Danilowatz, Georg Lasus' son-in-law, noted in an inscription in his diary that the present work was the subject of a forced sale to Mr. Friede, the proceeds of which were used to pay taxes imposed by the Nazi's. The painting was subsequently acquired by Gustav Ucicky, the illegitimate son of Klimt, who in turn donated it to the ™sterreichische Galerie Belvedere. Please note this painting has been requested for the upcoming exhibition Gustav Klimt: Landscapes, to be held at the ™sterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna and the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown from 23 October 2002 to 23 February 2003. (fig. 1) Gustav Klimt, Philosophie, 1899-1907. Ceiling panel for the great hall of the University of Vienna. Burned in Schloss Immendorf, 1945. (fig. 2) Gustav Klimt, Medezin, 1900-1907. Ceiling panel for the great hall of the University of Vienna. Burned in Schloss Immendorf, 1945. (fig. 3) Exerpt from Josef Danilowatz's diary entry dated 24 November 1939. The annotation in the margin reads: "Sale of the Birchtrees and of Grete Holfeld [ Dame mit Hut und Federboa, Novtony/Dobai 161] by Gustav Klimt. (fig. 4) Exerpt from Josef Danilowatz's diary entry which reads: "... The negotiations with Lukas G. [alerie] have been completed to the satisfaction of all parties and Lo”cher in the evening brought the money for both Klimts, accompanied by Mr. Friede, a Rhinelander. Now we are rid of our subsistence problems for a long time and are all happy. It all went quickly and smoothly, without much bartering...".