The Female Form

CBS ran a comprehensive story on the paintings of the brilliant Austrian artist Gustav Klimt. The famous painter’s primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by what has been called “a frank eroticism.”

Klimt lived in Vienna during the turn of the 20th century, and according to CBS “no one captured the moment of opulent decadence the way he did.” He was “the most celebrated portrait painter of his day. Obsessed with women . . . with pale beauties in extravagant gowns, or nothing at all.” One of his clothed paintings was sold for an amazing $135 million, and he is so celebrated a gallery in New York has even reproduced his studio “where he both painted and seduced many of his models . . . In this gallery, we really get a sense of his obsession for the love of the female form . . . it is a private glimpse of a master at work.”

The CBS host said “What might be regarded as the very essence of human nature is captured in his work--love, lust…” to which the museum director replied “It’s extremely sensuous.” Gustav Klimt never married, but he is said to have fathered more than a dozen children.

The item concluded with the curator of the gallery looking at a painting of a baby, and explaining why Klimt painted it as his last work. She said, “He was always reminded of his mortality.”

If you too enjoy gazing at the naked female form, you don’t have to go to New York to see similar works. You can find them scrawled on the walls of most public rest rooms.