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1897

First president of the Vienna Secession

The Secession began as a union of fifty founders and Klimt was chosen as its first president: he was sponsored by the influential Carl Moll, and was the eccentric, taciturn leader regarded as steadfast and authentic. In the salon of Carl and Anna Moll he met Viennese society and began painting portraits of its ladies.

from late 1890s

Summers on the Attersee

From the late 1890s Klimt spent every summer with the Flöge family on the Attersee and painted landscapes there — the only genre besides figure painting that seriously interested him. The locals called him the “forest demon”; space in these landscapes is flattened so completely into one plane that he is believed to have painted them through a telescope.

1897–1898

Paints the “Portrait of Sonja Knips”

The square portrait, 145 × 145 cm, for which Klimt made more than fifteen studies, was a stylistic breakthrough and began a series of large-format portraits in lavish frames. It was shown at the Secession's second exhibition in November 1898 and became a turning point in the artist's career.

1897–1917

Society portraits of Viennese ladies

Over twenty years Klimt painted nearly twenty society portraits of women, which gave him financial independence; Carl Moll introduced him to many of the sitters, most of them from the Jewish upper bourgeoisie. In the portraits the ladies are hidden in sumptuous clothing, their heads and hands seeming to float detached from reality.

1900

“Philosophy” at the Secession: the scandal

First shown at the Secession's seventh exhibition, “Philosophy” provoked protests from the public and university professors, and a scandal unprecedented in Vienna brought the exhibition a record 35,000 visitors. Three weeks after the opening the painting went to the World Fair in Paris and won a gold medal.

1900–1907

He returns the advance and keeps the paintings

The state commission refused to accept the three “Faculty Paintings”; Klimt told the minister he would return the 60,000-krone advance, refused to work for the Austrian state again and kept the pictures. The ministry demanded them, but Klimt did not open the door to the removal men — and the affair ended in his victory.