Gustav Klimt (Baumgarten (near Vienna), 1862 - Vienna, 1918). To this day his work still has both its admirers and its detractors. He is criticised for his massed repetitive decorative elements, and his gold backgrounds and jewelled coloration are considered to be outside the bounds of 'great art'. Stylisation carried to the point of ornamental dissolution is typical of his style, as is the craftsmanlike execution. Like many of his contemporaries he favoured Symbolist representations. His portraits are both delicate and magnificent, his less numerous landscapes mosaic-like, with their dotted brushwork. Klimt's work, which is now highly esteemed, greatly influenced the development of the Vienna Jugenstil and also the arts and craft movements, as represented by the Wiener Werkstätte founded in 1903.

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