The Park, 1909 by Gustav Klimt

The Park, 1909 by Gustav Klimt
The Park, 1909 by Gustav Klimt

Pointillism clearly influenced this painting, even though, unlike Seurat, Klimt never expressed an interest in utilizing optics in his work. Nine-tenths of The Park is a solid mass of foliage, thus if not for the tree trunks and strips of grass at the bottom, this composition would be wholly abstract. The painting's naturalistic elements are offset by Klimt's decorative mosaic of blue, green and yellow dots, which are rendered representational only with the aid of the work's lower section. This is a visually demanding work, and possibly one of Klimt's finest plein air paintings (although many of his landscapes were finished in the studio, all were begun in the open air). He painted these throughout his career, but to this day they are celebrated far less than his portraits.