Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter, muralist and designer. He mostly painted women but also loved painting landscapes. In fact he spent so much time painting in the woods near his house that his neighbors called him the “the forest demon”!

• Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 in Austria and lived until 1918 when he died from the Spanish Flu pandemic.

• Klimt was from a poor family. His father was a gold engraver which explains his heavy use of gold leaf in his paintings.

• He went to the best art school in Vienna when he was only 14!

• Klimt was a bit odd. He never hung out with other artists, in fact he rarely left his house. He painted every day, all day and would only ever wear a kind of loose tunic and sandals. He loved hanging out with his cat, Katze.

• Later in Klimt’s career he entered into his “Golden Phase” of painting. All of his paintings from this period prominently feature gold leaf. Gold leaf is gold that that has been hammered into a very thin sheet like aluminum foil. His “Tree of Life” mural is the only landscape he completed during this phase.

• His most famous painting “Adele Bloch-Bauer” is from his “Golden Phase”. It is the most expensive painting ever sold at auction. It sold for 135 million dollars!

• For many years after his death people forgot about Klimt, but people started to reappraise his art about fifty years ago. He is now considered one of the best artists ever.