Where to see Gustav Klimt’s most significant works

Gustav Klimt’s Lady with a Fan is being auctioned on Tuesday at Sotheby’s. It’s the painting that stood on the Viennese master’s easel when he died in 1918, and one of a handful of his portraits still in private hands. No wonder then that it’s expected to sell for about £65 million. It could even break Europe’s auction-price record for art.

Don’t be disheartened if it disappears from view though, because Klimt’s best work is on permanent public display. Here’s where to find it.

1. The Kiss, Upper Belvedere, Vienna
By Viennese standards this hilltop palace is a relatively modest affair. However, it has no rivals when it comes to Klimt’s work. Alongside several permanent loans, 17 of the paintings from its own collection are on show. One of them is The Kiss.

Even if you’ve looked at it a thousand times on posters and computer screens, your first face-to-face encounter with his masterpiece will be a revelation. You can thank the gold for that. Klimt’s father, Ernst, was a gold engraver, so he knew the power of its sensual shimmer, and by wrapping his two lovers in its embrace he gives the viewer a taste of their rapture. No photograph has ever done its lustre justice (£14, belvedere.at).
Where to stay The calm and quietly luxurious Guesthouse Vienna is 14 minutes by tram from the Belvedere. B&B doubles from £237 (theguesthouse.at)

Klimt’s Mada Primavesi on display in New York

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2. Neue Galerie, New York
There’s no doubting the star attraction at New York’s Neue Galerie (neuegalerie.org). Since 2006 the Fifth Avenue shrine to expressionist art has been home to another of Klimt’s dazzling gold period paintings — the portrait of his friend and (probably) lover, Adele Bloch-Bauer. Stolen from her family by the Nazis, it was eventually returned after a long, arduous campaign — and then sold to the Neue Galerie’s owner for the reported sum of $135 million.

The museum is having a revamp and reopens on September 1. In the meantime you can catch up with two other significant Klimts in Manhattan. On show at the Met is his portrait of the young, forthright Mäda Primavesi. Further down Fifth Avenue, Hope II is waiting at MoMA.
Where to stay CitizenM Times Square, about a ten-minute walk from MoMA. Room-only doubles from £170 (citizenm.com)

Klimt’s The Maiden celebrates life, fertility and desire

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3. Veletrzni Palac, Prague
A visit to the national collection of modern art in Holesovice is almost always blissfully quiet. Come here midweek and you may even get its Picassos, Cézannes and Egon Schieles entirely to yourself, as well as all kinds of Czech masters, from Frantisek Kupka to Jan Kotik (£20, ngprague.cz).

The icing on the cake is Klimt’s The Maiden. A celebration of life, fertility and desire, it’s a 6ft-tall tangle of quilts and women’s bodies that looks for all the world like it’s been through a tumble dryer of yearning. On its own, the vivid swirl of colours will stop you in your tracks.
Where to stay Trendy Mama Shelter is next door. Room-only doubles from £72 (mamashelter.com)

Ca’ Pesaro is a 17th-century palace on the Grand Canal in Venice

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4. Ca’ Pesaro, Venice
Klimt painted the ancient heroine Judith twice. The first, at the Belvedere, swoons at her seductive power. His second is more ambivalent — hinting at Judith’s emotional turmoil before leading the eye down to the cause: the severed head of her victim, Holofernes. It hangs in the Ca’ Pesaro, a 17th-century palace on the Grand Canal that’s home to the city’s International Gallery of Modern Art. Works by Bonnard, Chagall, Miró and Kandinsky deepen the allure (£8.50, capesaro.visitmuve.it)
Where to stay The Antica Locanda Sturion, which is less than a ten-minute walk from the Ca’ Pesaro. B&B doubles from £90 (locandasturion.com)

The memorial bust of Klimt in Attersee

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5. Attersee, near Salzburg
Every summer from around 1900 Klimt holidayed beside this Salzkammergut lake — and turned his eye for pattern and colour to the surrounding countryside (with a little help from a telescope and a pair of opera glasses). Since the local Gustav Klimt centre closed last year, Vienna’s Belvedere is the best place to consider the results. But for dedicated fans of his dense, flickering greens the Gustav Klimt Artist Trail marks many of his viewpoints (klimt-am-attersee.at).
Where to stay The Pension Reiter-Moravec at Litzlberg — one of Klimt’s favourite villages. B&B doubles from £120 (pension-reiter.com)

Klimt’s Baby

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6. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
What’s this: a bairn? You can’t help but be surprised. At Washington’s National Gallery, Klimt’s Baby lies at the top of a triangle of coloured fabric, and is one of his most uncharacteristic subjects. For sure the child reigns supreme, but it seems remote and untouchable too. There’s a sense of wariness about the work, which is perhaps no surprise — according to the Klimt Foundation, he fathered six illegitimate children. There are rumours of more.
Where to stay The Yotel Washington DC is 15 minutes’ walk from the gallery. Room-only doubles from £98 (yotel.com)

Neue Pinakothek also has works by Van Gogh on show

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7. Neue Pinakothek, Munich
A feast of late 19th and early 20th-century art awaits at the Neue Pinakothek — including works by Van Gogh, Gauguin and Kandinsky. At present only one Klimt stands among them (the other is in store). But it’s well worth seeking out his towering portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein, the sister of the philosopher Paul Wittgenstein. Here Klimt eschews his usual patterning and lets the subtleties of her diaphanous dress do the talking.
Where to stay The Ruby Lilly Hotel is 20 minutes on foot from the museum. Room-only doubles from £80 (ruby-hotels.com)

Klimt’s suburban studio in Vienna

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8. Klimt’s Studio, Vienna
Besides the Belvedere’s all-conquering collection you can see Klimt’s work in several other Viennese institutions, including the Leopold, the Secession building and the Kunsthistorisches Museum. It’s this concentration of epoch-defining work — alongside that of Egon Schiele — that makes an art-loving city break here such a thrill. Spare time for his suburban studio too. Three minutes’ walk from a U4 underground station, it’s preserved within a later villa and recreates its spartan simplicity. His sister wrote of the vehemence with which he worked and it’s not hard to imagine him doing battle here (£8.50, klimtvilla.at).
Where to stay Back in the city centre, the 25 Hours Vienna is a good budget alternative to Guesthouse Vienna. Room-only doubles from £144 (25hours-hotels.com)

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