Flower garden: flowers, surface and disappearance of perspective
In this square saturated with flowers, Klimt does not invite us to enter a garden: he brings it closer until the ground becomes almost a vertical tapestry. Space recedes, color advances.
A real garden turned colorful surface
Flower garden, more precisely Bauerngarten, is a square landscape painted by Gustav Klimt in 1907 near the Attersee. The flowers are grouped into a large pyramid, but almost no clue can measure the distance.
The picture is not flat in the strict sense: the shapes diminish slightly and the masses overlap. Yet Klimt removes the horizon, sky, path and architecture. It retains just enough depth to recognize a garden, then transforms it into a continuous field of colors.
Why does the garden seem shallow?
Klimt does not destroy perspective with a theoretical rule. It makes it useless by successively removing its main benchmarks.
No horizon line
The gaze encounters neither distance nor opening. The entire surface belongs to vegetation.
No input into image
Neither path nor border leads the viewer. The garden presents itself frontally.
Almost equal flowers
The reduction of patterns exists, but it remains too weak to construct a deep space.
A living mosaic
Orange, purple, white and green respond to each other across the entire canvas and unify the shots.
A pyramid of flowers in a square
The first effect is that of a centerless profusion. However, the composition is strongly organized. The white flowers form a peak near the upper edge; the oranges unfold to the right; violets and reds weigh down the lower part.
This pyramid stabilizes the abundance. It gives the garden an almost monumental presence, comparable to that of a full-length portrait or a floral altar.
Three details to understand the construction
These enlargements come from the same full image. They show how Klimt alternates recognizable flowers, detached touches and almost purely chromatic areas.
The White Summit
Large pale corollas peak in the square. They form a summit and slow down the gaze before the edge.
The orange-purple shock
Complementaries intensify each other. The garden appears bright without depending on a described light source.
The edge remains open
The flowers cut by the frame suggest that the vegetation continues off the canvas: the square becomes a fragment of a larger field.
Is perspective really disappearing?
It does not disappear completely; it becomes secondary. Klimt maintains some overlaps and variations in scale, but takes away their power to organize the canvas.
The ground straightens up
As no horizon indicates the inclination of the terrain, the meadow can be read simultaneously as soil and as a vertical wall.
The pattern replaces the volume
A flower is defined less by its pattern than by a spot, an outline, a color and its place in the general rhythm.
Everything remains mobile
The eye does not find a single vanishing point. It circulates between white, orange, red and purple foci.
Profusion is no coincidence
Klimt seems to record a wild garden, but he distributes colors like a decorator. Oranges cross the canvas diagonally; whites create relays; purples concentrate the visual weight in the lower half.
Research from the Gustav Klimt Database highlights this pyramidal organization, which distinguishes Bauerngarten other more evenly spread floral landscapes.
A garden encountered near Litzlberg
Klimt stayed at the Attersee during the summers from 1900. In 1907, his last year at the Bräuhof in Litzlberg, he found several floral motifs in the immediate surroundings.
Research probably places the peasant garden near Anton Mayr's farm. Klimt therefore observes a real place, but seeks neither topographical accuracy nor botanical inventory: he reorganizes the feeling of abundance.
See the Attersee beyond the table
Litzlberg and the lake
The photograph restores the actual opening of the site. In Flower garden, Klimt eliminates precisely this lake depth.
Klimt and Emilie Flöge
The summer stay combines work, walks, swimming and sociability. Landscapes are born from this long familiarity with the territory.
Schörfling and the Klimt course
The site and public tour of the region document the painter's campaigns around the lake and connect the paintings to their motifs.
Compare Klimt flowers
Flower garden belongs to a broader search. Each canvas modifies the proportion between individual plant, garden depth and decorative surface.
Sunflower garden
Tall stems and trees structure a green wall. The look identifies individual plants more.
Poppy field
A thin strip of sky remains. The perspective compresses, but remains measurable.
Rose bushes under the trees
The foliage envelops the roses; the garden becomes atmosphere as much as motif.
Pear tree
Fruits, leaves and branches create a spotted network which announces the floral gardens of 1907.
The Sunflower
A single plant becomes a monumental, almost human figure, in front of a background of flowers.
| Work | Space marker | Organisation | Dominant effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flower garden | No sky, no path | Floral pyramid | Almost total surface area |
| Poppy field | Fine strip of sky | Ascending meadow | Suspended depth |
| Sunflower garden | Trunks and tall stems | Superimposed verticals | Green wall |
| The Sunflower | Continuous floral background | Central figure | Plant portrait |
From Attersee to the art market
The work has been known since the great Viennese exhibition of 1908. Its modern trajectory explains why it is not permanently visible in a museum.
Painting in Litzlberg
Klimt takes as his motif a peasant garden close to his place of stay and probably completes the painting in his Viennese workshop.
Kunstschau Wien
Bauerngarten is presented in the exhibition which brings together the Viennese avant-garde and consecrates the great floral landscapes of Klimt.
Private collections
The painting goes through private collections and various international exhibitions; it does not join a permanent museum collection.
Sale in London
Sotheby's sells the work for £47.97 million, including fees. The result draws new attention to Klimt's landscapes.
Gardens and flowers by Gustav Klimt
The main work has its dedicated product sheet. Neighboring paintings allow you to choose between floral profusion, verticality of sunflowers, vibration of poppies or calm of an orchard.
Flower garden
The floral pyramid from 1907 in painted reproduction.
Sunflower garden
A dense composition structured by the large stems.
Poppy field
Red dots under an almost erased horizon.
Rose bushes under the trees
The roses float in an envelope of foliage.
Continue into the landscapes of Klimt
Understand everything about Flower garden
What is the real title of the painting?
The German title is Bauerngarten. It is translated as Cottage Garden, Flower Garden, Farm Garden, Peasant garden or Flower garden depending on sources and languages.
When did Klimt paint Flower Garden?
In 1907, during his last summer campaign at the Bräuhof in Litzlberg, around Lake Attersee.
Where is Flower Garden today?
In a private collection. The work may appear in temporary exhibitions, but it is not permanently hung in a museum.
What are the dimensions of the table?
110 × 110 cm. Its exact square belongs to the format that Klimt favors for its mature landscapes.
Why does perspective seem to disappear?
Because Klimt removes the sky, the horizon, the path and the architecture, while reducing the differences in scale between the flowers. The ground then seems to straighten out.
Did the garden really exist?
Yes, the motif probably comes from a peasant garden located near Anton Mayr's farm, in the vicinity of Klimt's stay in Litzlberg. The final composition nevertheless remains a pictorial reconstruction.
Is the table pointillist?
Klimt uses a fragmented touch and is interested in the effects of Neo-Impressionism, but he does not strictly follow the scientific division of color practiced by Seurat or Signac.
How much was the painting sold for?
At the Sotheby's sale in London on March 1, 2017, the work reached 47.97 million pounds, including fees.
Reference documents and images
Gustav Klimt Database
Context of 1907, Attersee gardens and pyramidal composition of Cottage Garden.
Notice and provenanceSotheby's
Catalog of the 2017 sale, exhibitions, history of the work and analysis of the garden.
Public imageWikimedia Commons
2000 × 2000 px file and public domain information used for illustration.
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