For over a century, only conservators and experts could closely examine early works by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt at Vienna's Burgtheater. Now, Klimt enthusiasts can enjoy daily guided tours high up on scaffolding to view these masterpieces up close.
Restoration of Klimt's Early Works
The ten oil paintings, located on the 18-meter-high (60-foot-high) ceilings of the renowned Burgtheater, are undergoing restoration due to water damage. This restoration allows the public unprecedented access to Klimt's early artistry.
“The special thing about Klimt for me at least is that we only know about his later works,” said Hannes Höllinger, 60, who recently attended a Klimt tour. He added, “It was very interesting to see that already at age 24 he made these very beautiful paintings which I myself had not seen before.”
Klimt's Artistic Legacy
Klimt, famous for his bold art nouveau paintings, was a key figure in early 20th-century artistic modernism. His works have fetched some of the highest prices ever for an artist. Among his most famous paintings is “The Kiss” (1907-1908), depicting a couple in a passionate embrace with elaborate patterns and gold, displayed at Vienna's Belvedere Museum.
“We were allowed to invest several hundred thousand euros to let Gustav Klimt shine in his original splendor again,” Burgtheater commercial director Robert Beutler told The Associated Press. “Everything gets cleaned by hand with very fine cotton swabs and condensed water.”
The Largest Painting and Restoration Process
The largest Klimt painting measures about 35 square meters (375 square feet). “So you can imagine how long that takes when you remove dust and grime piece by piece and layer by layer,” Beutler said. Klimt created the art at the theater from 1886 to 1888, collaborating with his brother Ernst and Austrian painter Franz Matsch. At age 24, it was Klimt's first major commission.
Conservator Thomas Mahr, responsible for restoring the stucco surrounding Klimt's early work, noted that the artists' pitch at the time was: “We are young, we are fast, and provide great work at low cost — and that’s how they got into business.”
Depictions in the Paintings
The paintings illustrate various scenes from theater history. One of the largest works shows a scene from 16th-century London, with Queen Elizabeth I watching a staging of “Romeo and Juliet” at the Globe Theatre. Right behind the queen, Klimt and his two fellow artists appear, making it Klimt's only known self-portrait.
Every day, hundreds of art lovers climb the scaffolding as part of guided tours to see Klimt's work up close. Susanne Höllinger, who took the tour with her husband Hannes, said the early paintings already offer a glimpse of what Klimt's later famous works would look like. She particularly enjoyed the many details not visible from the theater floor, such as finely painted small figures or the cigarette in the fingers of Klimt's chain-smoking brother Ernst.
“To be so close to these freshly renovated paintings — just a unique experience,” Höllinger exclaimed. The special guided tours about Klimt's ceiling art will continue until August, after which the scaffolding will be removed. General admission tickets are available on the theater's website for 25 euros ($29).
