The Virgin 1913

Gustav Klimt painted ‘The Virgin,’ using oil paint on canvas, sometime before his death in 1918. Klimt was interested in a total work of art, or gesamtkunstwerk, where everything is integrated. So even though he was working with paint, he took inspiration from all kinds of other material sources, from fashion and textiles to mosaics. Think of the painting as built up from myriad small components, like a richly ornamented surface. Look at how Klimt renders the faces and bodies with careful naturalism, then contrasts that approach with areas of pure pattern. The many swirls, circles, and floral elements create an almost overwhelming decorative effect. It's a strategy of layering, of contrasting highly worked areas with passages of relative calm. In this way, Klimt collapses the distinction between the hand-made and the industrially produced, between art and decoration. In doing so, he elevates craft traditions and questions what we consider 'high art.'