Gustav Klimt

From about 1904 Klimt developed the 'golden' manner of his mature work, laying gold leaf and mosaic-like ornament over flat figures in Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907) and The Kiss (1908-09). The Austrian ministry bought The Kiss at the 1908 Kunstschau for the state's Modern Gallery, and the painting belongs to the Belvedere in Vienna.

In 1897 Klimt became the first president of the Vienna Secession, an association of artists that broke away from Vienna's established artists' society to show modern art on its own terms. The group built its own exhibition house in 1898, and Klimt contributed drawings and designs to its magazine Ver Sacrum.

His Beethoven Frieze (1901-02), about 34 metres of wall painting, was made for the Secession's 1902 exhibition built around Max Klinger's Beethoven statue. In 1905-1911 he also designed the marble, gold and enamel dining-room frieze of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.

In March 1901, while the Medicine painting was being attacked in the press and raised in parliament, Klimt made a rare public remark in the Wiener Morgenzeitung, as quoted by the Belvedere: he had no time to join the squabble, and what mattered to him was not how many people liked a picture but who did.

This reply is consistent with the profile's independent thinking: it names a standard for judging his own work that does not depend on public approval. It is a single remark, and his defence in print was largely left to supporters such as Bahr and Hevesi. Independent Thinking

In 1908 Klimt was president of the committee that organised the Vienna Kunstschau. The Belvedere says the organising left him no time to finish The Kiss before the opening; the ministry bought the unfinished picture there, Klimt wrote on 16 July 1908 that he would complete it at once, and its completion is documented only from June 1909.

This episode is consistent with the profile's slower completion of major works, though the Belvedere ties this delay partly to his organising workload and the exhibition deadline. Execution Speed

In May 1905, after the controversy had made it impossible to hang his three faculty paintings in the university, Klimt withdrew from the commission, repurchased all of them and returned the advances he had received; the Belvedere's provenance records give 25 May 1905. The collector August Lederer bought the Philosophy that year. The commission begun in 1894 ended with none of the paintings hanging in the university, and later large-scale work such as the Stoclet frieze was made for private clients.

This is consistent with the profile's autonomy need: Klimt chose to own the paintings rather than see them moved to a state gallery. That refusal rests on the Belvedere's online account, and the same text says friends and patrons helped him repay, so it was not a solitary act. Need for Autonomy