Gustav Klimt, Bauerngarten mit Sonnenblumen © Belvedere, Vienna.
Viennese Flower Painting at the Belvedere Belvedere Vienna presents the exhibition ‘Say it with Flowers! Viennese Flower Painting from Waldmüller to Klimt’. 22 June to 30 September 2018.]]>
Source: Belvedere Vienna
Throughout the ages, flower pictures have been imbued with powerful symbolism. In nineteenthcentury Vienna, flower painting attained an incomparable quality, variety, and significance. Indeed, flowers are important in the oeuvres of artists ranging from Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller through to Gustav Klimt. This exhibition in the Orangery at the Lower Belvedere takes a look at art history from its floral side.
The exhibition traces flower pictures from the late eighteenth through to the early twentieth century featuring works from the Belvedere’s abundant collection, some of which have not been on display for decades. The genre of flower painting in this period includes the “discovery” of Austrian nature, the opulence of the Ringstrasse era, and also the transformed blooms that return to stylization in around 1900 (Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele). Flower painting therefore exemplifies general developments in art history and its liberation from the academic norm. It was in this genre that women artists like Pauline Koudelka-Schmerling and Olga WisingerFlorian, still barred from studying at the Academy, were first able to establish themselves on an equal footing with their male colleagues. The exhibition examines this aspect as well as influences on Austrian flower painting from abroad, illustrated by some outstanding loans. In addition, a selection of works by contemporary artists reveals some astonishing parallels to the art of their predecessors.
Featuring works by Jan van Huysum, Rachel Ruysch, Josef Klieber, Josef Nigg, Franz Xaver Petter, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Eugène Delacroix, Pauline Koudelka-Schmerling, Rosalia Amon, Anton Romako, Hans Makart, Olga Wisinger-Florian, Tina Blau, Carl Schuch, Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Michael Powolny, Egon Schiele, Gerhard Richter, and Willem de Rooij, among others.
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