The Viennese Secession soon had its own statutes but more importantly a mouth piece with the official magazine of the Vienna Secession Ver Sacrum (Latin for “sacred spring”), which was published from 1898 to 1903. It took its name possibly from either one of these two sources: Some art historians think that it was inspired by an old Roman ritual, dedicated to their gods, meant to celebrate the foundation of a new township while others assume that the name was borrowed from Ludwig Uhland’s poem Der Weihefrühling (The Sacred Spring). Artists from the Secession contributed to the magazine along with popular local writers and other foreign artists. The magazine, under…

Apart from Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch, many other artists participated in the beginning of the movement: Wilhelm List, Carl Moll, Ernst Stöhr, Max Kurzweil, Koloman Moser, and Josef Engelhart. This core group essentially founded in 1897 the Vienna Secession after a coffee-house meeting. Later, the architects Josef Hoffmann, who was also one of the co-founders of the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna’s Workshops), and Josef Maria Olbrich joined the illustrious group as well. Gustav Klimt , barely aged 35, took up the presidency. Soon a motto was found as well: “Every era needs its own art and all art needs its freedom.” Thus, program and mission statement for the movement were…

As previously mentioned, the second half of the 19th century was characterised by a plethora of constructional activity in Vienna. In 1857, at the behest of Emperor Franz Joseph, the demolition of the medieval city wall that still surrounded the city centre was initiated. During this period, the Ringstraßenviertel was created: a thriving new district of magnificent buildings and beautiful parks, while the essence of regeneration provided Gustav Klimt and his partners with the opportunity to showcase their talent. The first commissions did not take long to follow, and they were asked to contribute artistically to the festivities on the occasion of the silver wedding of Emperor Franz Joseph and…

The two decades between 1885 and 1918 were a turbulent time of social and cultural paradigm shifts for Vienna, capital of a multi-ethnic empire on the verge of losing the pomp and glory of the 19th century. However, the creation of The Viennese Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese Workshops) marked a leap into the modern age, at least culturally. In 1861, the local artists had already joined the Genossenenschaft der bildenden Künstler Wiens (Association of Fine Artists in Vienna) and found a home in the Künstlerhaus, a renaissance-style building designed by August Weber, that was situated directly at the main boulevard in Vienna. However, the building soon outgrew its…

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did not just capture life in his paintings, drawings and lithographs, but he also caught the life of a singular and unique Paris that did not exist before him and disappeared after him. During the third Republic, the new Paris imagined by Haussmann was already a reality with its boulevards, its department stores, commercial malls, stations, iron-framed markets and luxurious private hotels. The city was expanding further away from its centre invading the last resisting hills. Only the distinctive blocks of the village of Montmartre remained, where vineyards grew and where Auguste Renoir worked outdoors whilst his wife and children gathered snails in the poppy fields. New…

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec did not just capture life in his paintings, drawings and lithographs, but he also caught the life of a singular and unique Paris that did not exist before him and disappeared after him. During the third Republic, the new Paris imagined by Haussmann was already a reality with its boulevards, its department stores, commercial malls, stations, iron-framed markets and luxurious private hotels. The city was expanding further away from its centre invading the last resisting hills. Only the distinctive blocks of the village of Montmartre remained, where vineyards grew and where Auguste Renoir worked outdoors whilst his wife and children gathered snails in the poppy fields. New…

At the autumn of 1891, Gauguin decided to leave the civilized city of Papeete for the village of Mataiea where aborigines were living a natural life. He painted the sand on a shore, immense trees and mountains. He caught the effects of the blazing sun revealed by the sculpted volume of the tree. It mattered to him to give each painting a title in Tahitian. (Fatata te Mouà (At the Foot of a Mountain). He delineated flats of bright colors patches with contours. Little figures of Tahitian women – whom Gauguin never stopped drawing pictures of doing their activities – began to appear in the landscape. (Matamoea (Landscape with Peacocks).…

In the autumn of 1888, there was a break in Gauguin’s isolation in Brittany. Vincent van Gogh, whom Gauguin had met in Paris in 1886, had been asking him to come to Arles for a long time. Vincent had a dream: to create in the south of France a community of painters that could help them all to overcome the difficulties of life. Theo van Gogh had negotiated a contract with Gauguin according to which the painter had to carry out twelve paintings per year for him whilst Theo would pay him 150 francs of monthly salary. On October 21, 1888, Gauguin finally made the journey to Arles. For the rational…