Klimt and Beethoven: Artistic Rebellion in Fin de Siècle Vienna

Excellent online lecture from the Foundling Museum looking at Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze as part of their music and art series.

Sarah Jaffray, an art historian, led us through what was  happening in art in Vienna around 1900 and the role of the Secession movement. She described their HQ building which the frieze was shown and explained how it was a radical space for showing art.

She then talked about why the movement was attracted to Beethoven even though this was more because of the image of him in Mahler’s novel “A Pilgrimage to Beethoven”. This led to the 14th Secession exhibition being devoted to the composer to mark the 75th anniversary of his death, focused on a sculpture of him by Max Klinhen.

The frieze decorated an anti-chamber to the sculpture and Jaffray led us though the iconography of it in some detail.

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