The Velvet Undermine

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862 – 1918) 

Philosophie, 1899. Destroyed in 1945

Klimt created three paintings for the ceiling of the University of Vienna’s Great Hall. Klimt described the first of the three, Philosophie: 

“On the left, a group of figures, the beginning of life, fruition, decay. On the right, the globe as mystery. Emerging below, a figure of light: knowledge." 

The paintings were called “obscene” in a debate at the Austrian Parliament, and the paintings were seized. Klimt threatened the removal staff with a shotgun in an attempt to keep the paintings. He successfully preserved them during his lifetime, but the paintings were ultimately destroyed by German Nazis during World War II. Today, the paintings exist only in grainy photographs.