Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was raised in a family of modest means - his father, an immigrant from Bohemia, worked as an artisan engraver.  In his late teens, Klimt followed in his father’s footsteps by signing up on a course at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. 

Whilst still at the school, Gustav and his brother Ernst Klimt took on a number of commercial interior decoration projects, including the creation of some sizeable murals in public offices.

Sadly, in 1892, both Klimt’s brother, and his father died.  Klimt turned away from commercial  work and concentrated on painting on canvas.  His art was an amazing mix of the decorative flair he’d gained, combined with intense love for the female form.

Klimt’s personal life was  as sexually energised as his paintings - he had a permanent partner in Emile Floge, but dallied with many women, siring over a dozen children.

In 1897, Klimt, tired of the restrictive conventions of the art world, joined with a few fellow artists to form the Vienna Sezession movement.  The most famous exhibition mounted by the group was the 1902 homage to Ludwig van Beethoven - Klimt’s mural for the exhibition, the Beethoven Frieze formed a centerpiece.  The mural was not intended to last, but still exists (though in a poor condition).

The late 1890s saw Klimt producing his most famous works in his so-called ‘Gold Period’.  He utilized a series of mixed media techniques, incorporating gold-leaf and silver foil into his canvases, producing dazzylingly bright and decorative works.  Masterpieces include Judith I, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, and The Kiss.  

Late in his life, Klimt went back to painting in simple oil paints. He died in 1918 in Vienna, from a stroke.

Johannes Vermeer

Johannes (or Jan) Vermeer was a citizen of the small Dutch town of Delft.

An obsession with detail characterises his paintings, which are superbly precise and skillfully colored.

But it’s often thought that Vermeer’s approach was too meticulous and time-consuming for a professional - he and his family lived a simple life, and when Vermeer died he left a wife and 11 kids in debt.

His small body of work was completely forgotten for over 2 centuries, until a Frenchmen Etienne Thoré wrote a widely published article about Vermeer and his paintings. The art world realised that a true master had been uncovered.

Today Vermeer’s work is hugely popular, and impossible to value. In 2004, the first Vermeer to come up at auction in over 80 years was sold for $30 million (despite the fact that this particular Vermeer has shaky provenance).

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh was the master of color. He pioneered new methods during his relatively short life as an artist - his color choice changed from sombre, dark tones, to the vivid palette much loved today.
Vincent was a chronic epileptic and was tormented by angst and mental illness, and found great difficulty in forming personal friendships. As a result of this, and the general rejection of his work by the art world, he took his own life at the age of 37.