Farm Garden with Crucifix

Gustav Klimt's traditional painting, Farm Garden With Crucifix (1911), illustrates the impressionist mosaic phase Klimt entered near the end of his career.

A fire caused by German armed forces during World War Two in Austria has destroyed the oil on canvas piece, however the style remains as a transitional one for the artist.

Klimt has painted an array of cottage styled piece that illustrates the countryside way of life, with Farm Garden With Crucifix as one of his first pieces. The artist had departed from the traditional realism portraits and art nouveau style he cherished, into an impressionism style highlighting the beauty of nature.

The painting illustrates a calm garden that transcends into a forest. A pole with a crucifix of Jesus Christ, as a miniature statute of Mother Mary is placed on display. Gustav Klimt did not commonly paint biblical reference, as his only other painting is of Adam and Eve (1918).

It is near the end of Klimt's career that the artist began exploring the concept of religion within his art. Perhaps due to the abrupt death of Klimt's father and brother, the artist had seeked out to religion to deal with the struggles that he felt. The other work of Klimt's paid tribute to historical stories and the great works of philosophy however did not encompass any elements of religion.

The crucifix, and Mother Mary statute are covered in an array of bright flowers that seem to grow on the pole covered in vegetation. Shades of yellow pop out near the top of the structure, with different coloured flowers near the bottom. A common characteristic of the artist's flowers in all paintings was that they always carried a yellow centre in the middle, besides when he painted poppies. Red, pink, and white flowers with soft yellow middles fill the canvas of the painting.

The remained of the canvas is seized with classic shades of green to illustrate the vegetation of the Austrian landscape. A salad colour green fills the floor of the forest, blending into a soft meadow with yellow flowers. The rest of the canvas flourishes into a deep forest, where birch trees fill the landscape. It was a common style of Klimt to paint an array of birch trees, as they covered the countryside where he stayed.

As Klimt visited the countryside throughout the summer, the new scenery had inspired him to incorporate vegetation into his work. However, his classic mosaic style is seen evident through the arrangement of the flower's within the piece, carrying a similar pattern. Gustav Klimt's impressionism style near the end of the artist's career illustrates the soft shades of green, a bright flower's the artist desired to paint.