Hygieia by Gustav Klimt
The goddess Hygeia is a symbol of health and cleanliness that has been around for thousands of years.
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Gustav Klimt Quotes
"All art is erotic."
"There is no self-portrait of me."
"I can paint and draw. I believe this myself, and a few other people say that they believe this too. But I'm not certain of whether it's true."
"True relaxation, which would do me a world of good, does not exist for me. "
"Although even when I am being idle, I have plenty of food for thought both early and late - thoughts both about and not about art."
"If the weather is good, I go into the nearby wood - there I am painting a small beech forest (in the sun) with a few conifers mixed in. This takes until 8 'o clock."
"Sometimes I miss out on the morning's painting session and instead study my Japanese books in the open."
"Whoever wants to know something about me - as an artist which alone is significant - they should look attentively at my pictures and there seek to recognise what I am and what I want."
"After tea, it's back to painting - a large poplar at dusk with a gathering storm. From time to time, instead of this evening painting session, I go bowling in one of the neighbouring villages, but not very often."
"Even when I have to write a simple letter, I'm scared stiff as if faced with looming seasickness."
All quotes are from Gustav Klimt.
The source of all quotes is from BrainyQuote.
About the Artist: Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was born into a low-income family in southwest Vienna. His father, Ernst Klimt, was a gold engraver by profession. His mother, Anna Finster, was a musical performer but did not achieve much success. The family experienced a lot of financial hardship and relocated to five different homes during his childhood. His younger sister died from being ill for a long time. Also, to add to the grief of the Klimts family, his other sister Klara had a mental breakdown.
Life started to look up to the young Gustav Klimt when he was fourteen. He began training as a draftsman at Kunstgewerbeschule, the Viennese School of Arts and Crafts. The instructors when impressed with his extraordinary talent in drawing. Gustav's skills became so advanced that he started drawing people from everyday life.
In 1883, Gustav Klimt and his classmate Franz Matsch opened up an art studio in Vienna. They were able to get exposure and prestige with the social elites. Despite their early success, the money for their art did not pay that well.
Unfortunately, life doesn't always give you happiness. Gustav dealt with more tragedy in his life with the death of his younger brother and father. He began to question his academic art training, which caused a rift with his partner, Franz Matsch. Klimt began to show a change in his artistic style with a public commission for the University of Vienna.
He started using his signature symbolism in his artwork and the figures' nudity used in his paintings. There was a lot of controversy surrounding this artwork, and the University decided not to use his artwork. Gustav vowed not to do any more public art commissions.
In 1897, a crucial moment in the art world was when Klimt and his colleagues started the Vienna Secession. This group was a union for like-minded Austrian artists to abandon the old, conservative painting style. Artists formed this group to experiment with new techniques and create artwork in a more contemporary way.
The years 1898 and 1908, Gustav Klimt contributed his most famous paintings during this decade. The art community refers to this as the "Golden Phase" because he used the gold leaf in his artwork.
These paintings are:
Pallas Athene (1898)
Judith I (1901)
Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1903-07)
Field of Poppies (1907)
The Kiss (1907-08)
The rest we can say is history.
Source for About the Artist: Gustav Klimt: TheArtStory
Here are other Paintings by Gustav Klimt (my personal favorites).
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I feel like people talk about women in art all wrong. I have read analyses about this piece referring to her as a femme fatal, that she looks scornfully at the viewer, confronting them. I have to disagree, maybe I am just a Klimt lover. But for me, she's powerful! She adorned in red- the ultimate colour of women- and stands proudly above us. I mean, if she's the symbol for hygiene and health, we should be looking up to her. Especially in this time of the pandemic...
In ancient Greek mythology, Hygieia was the personification of health. She is often depicted with a serpent wrapped around her arm or torso and a cup or chalice in her hand. These two icons together form the Bowl of Hygieia, which is one of the symbols of pharmacy.