Impressionist landscapes are usually not the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about Gustav Klimt, but the rare outdoor painting of Lake Attersee in Austria emerged from a private collection in New York for an exhibition and auction at Sotheby's. Klimt's "Insel im Attersee" (1902) is set to be a hit at the Modern Art Night Auction next Tuesday, May 16, with an estimated price of $45 million.
Although known for his portraits and particularly his "Golden Phase", Klimt was largely influenced by the natural world and spent summers in the Austrian and Italian countryside at the turn of the 20th century, leaning towards more experimental work with unlimited inspiration from saturated tones. The artist regularly spent summers with his sister-in-law and life partner, the Austrian fashion designer Emilie Flöge, at their home along the Attersee following the death of his brother, Ernst, which left Emilie's older sister, Helene, a widow.
In 1900, Klimt began his outdoor explorations of the Attersee with a vivid appreciation for the shifting iridescence of water. In “Insel im Attersee”, Klimt retained the unusual square-shaped composition, but expanded his color palette to indicate the reflection of sunlight on the lake.
Instead of the original grayish purple and rich turquoise streaks, Klimt's Attersee painting is studded with pointillist brushstrokes of yellow-green, pink, and blue, ranging from pastel highlights to saturated midtones.
“Insel im Attersee” was also made significant by Klimt's gallerist, the Austrian art historian Otto Kallir, who included the painting in one of the first exhibitions, “Saved From Europe”, after opening Galerie St. Etienne in New York in 1939. Kallir moved from Austria to Lucerne, Switzerland to Paris and eventually to New York between 1938 and 1939 due to the Nazi regime saving as much work as he could by artists such as Klimt, Egon Schiele and Alfred Kubin.