Gustav Klimt · 1894 -1907 · destroyed work
Philosophy : birth, cosmic night and destroyed work
Commissioned to celebrate academic knowledge, Philosophy on the contrary, shows the human being carried away by birth, desire, old age and death, before a universe which remains enigmatic. This 4.30 meter fresco no longer exists: photographs, drawings and testimonies nevertheless make it possible to reconstruct its history.
Direct response
What Philosophy by Gustav Klimt?
Philosophy is the first of three large paintings made by Gustav Klimt for the ceiling of the University of Vienna, with Medicine and Jurisprudence. The order dates back to 1894. The State then awaits a readable setting, capable of exalting the faculties and progress of knowledge. Klimt chooses an opposite response: humanity appears as a vertical flow of bodies, suspended in a nocturnal space whose reason does not control the secret.
The painting was first presented in March 1900 at the seventh Viennese Secession exhibition. Visitors discover nudes of all ages, an immense cosmic head shrouded in fog and, at the very bottom, the illuminated face of Knowledge. Philosophy is therefore not a victorious character placed at the top: it is a fragile consciousness which emerges under a world much larger than itself.
The painting caused violent controversy. Several dozen professors refused to allow it to be installed in the great Festsaal. A few months later, however, he received a major distinction at the Universal Exhibition in Paris. Klimt further reworked the painting until 1907, then it entered the Lederer collection. Confiscated under Nazism and transported to Immendorf Castle, it disappeared in the fire of May 8, 1945.
Guided reading
Three presences organize the night
The Flow of Humanity
Children, couples, women, men and old people form a compact column. The succession of ages evokes "birth, fertility and decline", according to the 1900 catalog.
The sphinx or "the enigma of the world"
On the right, a gigantic face appears in a constellated mist. He does not look at humans: impassive, he embodies a cosmos whose meaning is slipping away.
Knowledge
At the very bottom, a female head with a forehead opens her eyes. Crowned with light, it represents consciousness and intelligence, but its scale remains tiny in front of the universe.
The void that connects
Between the bodies and the cosmic head, dark space is not a passive background. It creates the metaphysical distance that prevents the scene from becoming a simple school allegory.
A lost image in color
Why talk about a "cosmic night"?
Old photographs show a dark surface crossed by light bodies and points of light. Contemporary descriptions add what black and white erased: a moving "purple and green" atmosphere, where the large head seemed to float like a planet or a sphinx. The stars visible in the photos were golden.
This darkness transforms the university ceiling into a cosmic vision. Klimt represents neither a classroom, nor a library, nor a historical philosopher. It places human life in a space without soil and without horizon. The verticality of the panel recalls a fall, an ascent or a procession, without imposing a single direction.
Digital recoloring today allows us to imagine the opposition between flesh, mist, green, purple and gold. However, it remains a hypothesis: the original has disappeared and no algorithm can exactly restore the pigments, glazes, material or light of the canvas.
1894 - 1907
The slow birth of a monumental work
Between the official command and the final state, Klimt moves bodies, modifies the sphinx and searches for more than ten years for the exact relationship between humanity, night and consciousness.
The order
The State entrusts Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch with a vast program for the great Festsaal. Klimt receives in particular Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence.
Research intensifies
Klimt fills notebooks with male and female bodies, old men, children and heads. ALBERTINA lists around seventy studies linked to the work.
First public state
The painting is shown at the Secession on March 8. It surprises with its darkness, its nudes and the absence of a clear celebration of progress.
Final state
After collecting the order, Klimt continued to rework the painting. The final version is exhibited in Vienna then in Berlin.
Vienna, 1900
Why does the University reject painting?
Teachers don't just dispute nudity. They blame Klimt for reversing the program. A painting titled Philosophy normally had to show the victory of the mind over ignorance. But Knowledge is at the bottom of the panel, while the biological cycle and the cosmic enigma occupy almost the entire surface.
The commission thus becomes a conflict over the function of public art. For its opponents, the ceiling of a university requires a clear, dignified and educational image. For Klimt and his defenders, the artist must be able to give a modern form to uncertainty, even if this form disturbs the institution that paid for it.
A petition bringing together many professors calls for the canvas not to be installed. The Secessionists responded with a laurel wreath and public support. In Paris, the same year, the work received a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition. The Viennese scandal and international recognition therefore arose almost simultaneously.
Enlighten knowledge
The academic program expected a positive allegory where reason orders the world and guides humanity.
Showing the unknown
The web affirms that thought suppresses neither the body, nor time, nor the enigma of existence.
Refusal in Vienna, medal in Paris
The same work is denounced as unsuitable for its ceiling and rewarded as a major modern painting.
Faculty paintings
A trilogy of knowledge that has become a trilogy of crisis
Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence never decorate the planned ceiling. Together, they transform three academic disciplines into visions of birth, suffering, fault and death.
Medicine
A river of bodies crosses the panel while Hygieia, head-on, holds the serpent of Asclepius. As in Philosophy, knowledge does not triumph over mortality: it faces it.
Jurisprudence
A naked convict is surrounded by an octopus, the Erinyes and the powers of the law. Discipline no longer guarantees order: it appears as an apparatus of guilt and punishment.
1905 - 1945
From the break with the state to the fire of Immendorf
In 1905, exhausted by pressure and requests for modification, Klimt gave up the order. With the financial assistance of August and Serena Lederer, he repaid the advance of 30,000 crowns and recovered his paintings. This gesture marks a decisive break: Klimt will no longer accept a large comparable public order.
Philosophy joins the Lederer collection, one of Klimt's most important private collections. After the Anschluss, the family's property was seized and "Aryanized". The Faculty's paintings were then deposited at Immendorf Castle, Lower Austria, along with other major works.
On May 8, 1945, as the war ended in Europe, the castle burned down. The precise circumstances continue to be studied: the fire is generally linked to the withdrawal of German forces, but we must avoid transforming fragmentary documentation into absolute certainty. The result is beyond doubt: Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence and several other paintings by Klimt are destroyed.
See what's no more
Photographs, reproductions and recoloring: three levels of memory
The physical disappearance of the work requires us to distinguish the document, the reproduction and the hypothesis. Everyone brings something, but none replaces the canvas.
Today
Where to see Philosophy ?
The original cannot be seen in any museum: it was destroyed in 1945. At the University of Vienna, the large Festsaal preserves the memory of the project and presents photographic reproductions of the cycle. Above all, the place allows us to understand the planned relationship between the immense panels and the architecture.
Belvedere and Google Arts & Culture offer the digital recoloring carried out in 2021, accompanied by explanations on the method. ALBERTINA keeps numerous preparatory drawings which are original works. Their exhibition varies depending on the hangings and loans: the program must be checked before a visit.
To rediscover the monumental language that was born around this crisis, the Vienna Secession retained it Beethoven frieze. It is not a part of the university cycle, but it shows how Klimt transforms conflict into a new art of wall, rhythm and allegory.
Documentation
Main sources
Gustav Klimt Database
Genesis, exhibition of 1900, composition, controversy, Parisian medal and transformations until 1907.
Consult the instructions →ALBERTINA · digital catalog
Set of preparatory studies, description of the flow of life, the sphinx and Knowledge.
See drawings →University of Vienna · history
Order from 1894, petition, rupture from 1905, Lederer collection, spoliation, Immendorf and reproductions of the Festsaal.
Read the folder →MAK · Schloss Immendorf
Status of research on the fire of May 8, 1945 and inventory of artistic losses.
Consult the MAK →Belvedere · Pigment & Pixel
Method and limits of recoloring: a documented approximation, without pretension of authenticity.
Open folder →Google Arts & Culture
Interactive presentation of the Faculty's paintings and the digital recoloring project.
Explore the project →Visual credits: historical reproductions of Philosophy, Medicine, Jurisprudence, sketches and comparative works in the public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Digital recoloring: Google Arts & Culture /Belvedere, presented as an approximation. Festsaal: Florian Prischl, CC BY 2.5. Dome: Hubertl, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wall reproduction of Medicine : Wolfgang Glock, CC BY-SA 4.0. Each image is only used once in the article.
Frequently asked questions
Philosophy from Klimt in eight answers
When did Klimt paint Philosophy?
The order dates from 1894. Klimt intensified the work around 1897 -1898, presented a first major state in 1900 and continued the modifications until 1907.
What does Philosophy represent?
The panel combines a stream of bodies representing the ages of life, a large cosmic face called the "enigma of the world" and, below, a luminous head representing Knowledge.
Why did the painting cause a scandal?
Because the professors expected a clear celebration of reason. Klimt shows, on the contrary, humanity subjected to the biological cycle and confronted with an enigmatic universe.
What were its dimensions?
The canvas measured approximately 430 × 300 cm. This monumental vertical format was designed for the ceiling of the great Festsaal of the University of Vienna.
Where is Philosophy today?
The original no longer exists. It was destroyed in the fire at Immendorf Castle on May 8, 1945.
Is there a color photograph of the original?
No. Known historical photographs are in black and white. The colored version released since 2021 is a numerical approximation based on descriptions and comparisons.
How many preparatory drawings remain?
ALBERTINA brings together around seventy studies linked to the project, representing bodies, ages, poses and research for the cosmic head.
Has Philosophy received an award?
Yes. Despite the Viennese scandal, she won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900.
Shop selection
Medicine - A Reimagined Work by Gustav Klimt by Master Apollo | 180 x 270 cm
Find this work in hand-painted reproduction and explore the associated paintings.
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