Gustav Klimt

Death and Life by Gustav Klimt, Das Werk lifetime collotype, 1908-1912

1908-1914

Original 1931 collotype created from Gustav Kilmt’s Italian Garden Landscape, oil on canvas, 1913. Published by Max Eisler and printed by Österreichischer Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), Vienna, in an edition of 500. In 1931, Max Eisler published the most notable posthumous collection of Gustav Klimt works to date. Using a complex gravure process, Klimt’s original...

Original collotype created from Gustav Klimt’s Church in Cassone, painted in 1913. Published and edited by Verlag H.O. Miethke and printed by k.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna, in an edition of 300. Between 1908 and 1914, H.O. Miethke published Das Werk Gustav Klimts...

Original collotype created from a detail of Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze. Published and edited by Verlag H.O. Miethke and printed by k.k. Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna, in an e...

Original 1931 collotype created from Gustav Kilmt’s Portrait of Friederike Maria Beer, oil on canvas, 1916. Published by Max Eisler and printed by Österreichischer Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), Vienna, in an edition of 500. In 1931, Max Eisler published the most notable posthumous collection of Gustav Klimt works to date. Using a complex gravure process, Klimt’s original oil paintings were painstakingly reproduced as collotypes on a handmade, deckled-edge cream wove paper. This world-class example of collotype captures the superb resolution and color-richness and ornamentation of the original 1916 oil painting. "Friederike-Maria suggested that Klimt should paint her in a Viennese Workshop dress; she wore these exclusively. She was also very proud of a fur coat she owned, particularly during the hardship of the First World War, and Klimt decided that she should wear the coat too, but inside out, so that the decorative lining, also by the Viennese Workshop, was visible. Klimt decided to make use of an imaginary oriental screen...

After Gustav Klimt, Max Eisler Plate #29, Am Attersee; brown-toned monochrome collotype after the 1915-16 painting in oil on canvas. GUSTAV KLIMT EINE NACHLESE (GUSTAV KLIMT AN AFTERMATH), a portfolio of 30 collotypes prints, 15 are multi-color and 15 are monochrome, on chine colle paper laid down on heavy cream-wove paper with deckled edges; Max Eisler, Editor-Publisher; Osterreichischer Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), Printer; in a limited edition of 500 numbered examples of which: 200 were printed in German, 150 were printed in French and 150 were printed in English; Vienna, 1931. 2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Gustav Klimt’s death. It is a fitting time to reflect upon the enduring legacy and deep impact of his art. Recognizing this need for posterity with uncanny foresight, the publication of Gustav Klimt: An Aftermath (Eine Nachlese) provides a rare collection of work after Klimt which has proven to be an indispensable tool for Klimt scholarship as well as a source for pure visual delight. Approximately 25 percent of the original works featured in the Aftermath portfolio have since been lost. Of those 30, six were destroyed by fire on 8 May 1945. On that fateful final day of WWII, the retreating Feldherrnhalle, a tank division of the German Army, set fire to the Schloss Immendorf which was a 16th century castle in Lower Austria used between 1942-1945 to store objects of art. All three of Klimt’s Faculty Paintings: Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence (1900-1907), originally created for the University of Vienna, were on premises at that time. Also among the inventory of Klimt paintings in storage there was art which had been confiscated by the Nazis. One of the most significant confiscated collections was the Lederer collection which featured many works by Gustav Klimt such as Girlfriends II and Garden Path with Chickens. In many instances, Aftermath is our only link to these lost treasures. Max Eisler (1881-1937), the publisher of the 1931 Aftermath portfolio, was an art historian at Vienna University specializing in modern and contemporary arts and crafts whose 1920 book on Klimt was the first Klimt monograph. He saw An Aftermath as filling-in important gaps left by the earlier print portfolios which had only featured Klimt up to 1913 and which had glossed over major art projects such as the Tree of Life frieze for the Palais Stoclet. And whereas only 10 of the 50 prints from the earlier portfolios published by H.O. Miethke were made in intricate multi-color images, Eisler augmented the earlier format by featuring half of the 30 images in stunning multi-colored collotypes. Understanding the fragile nature of the collotype printing process also reinforces this project’s distinctive and exceptional characteristics. Fragile collotype plates can not be reused. As such, this necessitates the completion of a run on the first go and also dictates a limited production number. Printed by hand, the collotypes required deft handling by the printer, Osterreichische Staatsdruckerei. A complicated and lengthy process involving gelatin colloids mixed with dichromates, the creation of 16 color separation thin glass filters to achieve the light-sensitive internegative images which could faithfully capture all of the painting’s tonal gradations and colors, exposure to actinic light, and delicate chine collie papers which allowed for greater color saturation, the printer’s collaborative role in capturing and transmitting Klimt’s nuanced paint strokes is nothing short of remarkable. The Österreichische Staatsdruckerei (Austrian State Printing Office), was the successor to the KK Hof -und Staatsdruckerei which was founded by Emperor Franz I in 1804 and whose collotype printing innovations of Klimt’s art...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

DAS WERK GUSTAV KLIMTS, a portfolio of 50 prints, ten of which are multicolor collotypes on chine colle paper laid down on hand-made heavy cream wove paper with deckled edges; under ...

Egon Schiele (1890 – 1918), AUSTRIA “ART CANNOT BE MODERN, ART IS PRIMORDIALLY ETERNAL.” -SCHIELE Defiantly iconoclastic in life and art, Egon Schiele is esteemed for his masterfu...