Gustav Klimts Water Serpents is characteristic of his work: erotically charged and embellished with highly ornamental areas of decoration and dazzling gold tones. Klimt (1862-1918) was a brilliant Austrian iconoclast who rose from an impoverished childhood to become an artist of enormous significance to the Viennese Secession and the art nouveau movement. He primarily produced extravagant paintings and murals that were explicitly sensual, as well as works expressing themes of regeneration, love and death. Klimt was inspired by an eclectic scope of influences, including Egyptian, Classical Greek, Byzantine and Medieval styles. His works often utilized symbolic elements to emphasize the freedom of art from traditional culture. Although numerous works were incomplete when Klimt died, their high asking price was a testament to the thriving legacy he left behind.

Klimt undoubtedly preferred to paint women rather than men; the latter are remarkably rare in his paintings. He even paints an entirely feminised universe, a narcissistic world of lesbians loving one another in flowing water dreams, their hair entangled with algae

Gustav Klimt’s “Water Serpent” series contains his signature elements: highly ornamental areas, dazzling gold tones, and an erotic jolt. Klimt (1862 – 1918) rose from poverty to great significance in the Viennese Secession and Art Nouveau movement. Over the course of his career, he produced works depicting regeneration, love, death and explicit sensuality, embedded with symbols emphasizing the freedom of art from traditional culture. Klimt’s works are a lavish palette of Egyptian, Classical Greek, Byzantine and Medieval styles.