Life and Death: two states of the same picture
Golden then gray background, Collected then threatening death, expanded human group: Klimt took up his painting deeply after its success in 1911. Here is what really changed - and how the first state reached us.
Two versions, but only one original
The first image and the final state do not correspond to two separate paintings. Klimt painted a composition around 1910 -1911, exhibited and awarded it, then took up this same painting. Restorers and historians distinguish several campaigns, notably 1912 -1913 and 1915 -1916.
The first state is known from period photographs - including one taken by Moriz Nähr, Klimt's privileged photographer - as well as from old color reproductions. It does not survive as a second original hidden in a museum: the final state materially covers part of what Klimt had painted before.
See both states side by side
The reproductions were placed in identical frames and displayed in full. The comparison is therefore about the paint, not a crop or color filter.
The golden background brings the work even closer to Klimt's precious vocabulary. Death's head lowers in a halo form; the mass of the living is less tight and the face-to-face less aggressive.
The background turns bluish gray. Death stands up, shows a grin and brandishes a small red club. The human group, enlarged to nine figures, forms a more compact island.
What Klimt actually repainted
The dates vary slightly depending on the records: the Leopold Museum sometimes summarizes "1910/15", while its online collection distinguishes 1910/11, 1912/13 and 1915/16. These formulations describe the same process of prolonged creation.
| Area | First state | Final state | Product effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Background | Golden field, warm and bright. | Bluish gray, colder and more neutral. | The silhouettes stand out more; the allegory loses part of its precious setting. |
| Head of Death | Inclined skull, more introverted and almost solemn figure. | Skull straightened, grin visible, gaze oriented towards Life. | Death becomes an active protagonist, not a simple presence. |
| Gesture | Restrained attitude, shape tightened on itself. | Arms raised and little red club ready to strike. | The diagonal of the arm introduces imminent action. |
| Coat | Clearer ornamentation, with different organization of the crosses. | More intense blues, crosses and more strongly contrasting patterns. | The garment becomes shroud, mosaic and armor at the same time. |
| Human group | Fewer and less compact set. | Nine interlocking figures, from child to old woman. | Life becomes a community and not an addition of portraits. |
| Figure on the left | Relationship less directly dramatized. | A frightened young woman, on the edge of the group, seems to see Death. | His gaze establishes the psychological bridge between the two blocks. |
| Ornament | More spaced flowers and patterns. | Fabrics, flowers and bodies form a denser mass. | Life energy is expressed through intertwining rather than depth. |
A work followed for eight years
The history of titles and exhibitions shows that the painting was already public before its last transformation. Klimt therefore agreed to question a recognized work.
First studies
Preparatory drawings appear around 1908 -1909, before execution in oil.
First state
The composition is painted on the large canvas with a presumably golden background.
Rome
Presented under the title Death'the work earned Klimt a gold medal.
Dresden
It is exhibited under the title Death and Love.
Central Europe
Budapest, Mannheim then Prague show it under the title Death and Life.
Redesign
Klimt takes the background, Death, the weapon, the figures and the motifs.
New state
Berlin, Stockholm and Copenhagen discover the revised composition.
Nine figures, all ages, no single story
Klimt brings together the child, the mother, the couple, the young girl, adult bodies and an old woman. These characters do not form an identifiable family in the documentary sense. Rather, they condense the ages, relationships, and states of the human body.
The individual contours remain visible, but the figures fit together like pieces of a mosaic. One shoulder becomes the boundary of another body; a floral blanket connects separate silhouettes; the closed eyes of several figures create an inner world that seems to ignore the threat.
The young woman looking
At the far left, an open and worried face breaks this torpor. He seems to perceive Death. Klimt thus gives the viewer a relay: we see the danger at the same time as it, while the rest of the group remains absorbed in sleep, desire or protection.
An island rather than a stage
There is no ground or landscape. The living float in an oval shape, warm, tight, opposite the vertical and cold block of Death. The space of the painting is symbolic: two masses separated by emptiness, linked by a gaze and a threat.
Six keys to understanding allegory
The table does not accompany a precise text and Klimt has not left a definitive dictionary of his motifs. We can therefore describe their visual functions without claiming to establish a single meaning.
Emptiness
The interval between the two masses is not a setting: it is the fragile distance which still separates the living from Death.
The crosses
They make the mantle immediately funereal and repeat a rigid structure, opposed to the flexible forms of Life.
The red club
Small but lively, it concentrates the action. Its color responds to the carnal accents of the human group.
Flowers
They signal growth and abundance, but their repetition also reminds us that flowering is cyclical and transient.
Eyes closed
Sleep, abandonment, intimacy or ignorance: their ambiguity protects the painting from too literal reading.
The format
Almost square and monumental, it places the two forces on the same plane, like the terms of a visual equation.
The drawing prepares the twisting of the bodies
This sheet reminds us that Klimt did not construct his compositions starting with the decor. The pencil first seeks a pose: the inclination of the pelvis, the position of the legs, the tension of the torso and the way in which a body can fit into a tight whole.
In the final painting, much of the anatomy disappears beneath the fabrics and patterns. However, the coherence of the group depends on this invisible work. The figures appear intertwined because Klimt knows precisely their weight and joints before covering them.
A documented attribution
The sheet bears on the back a handwritten confirmation from Georg Klimt, brother of the artist. It was listed in the catalog of Alice Strobl's drawings and comes successively from the workshop, Georg Klimt, the Ludwig Baldass collection then a private collection.
Why abandon the golden background?
Leopold Museum indicates that the exact reason for the redesign remains unknown. We must therefore distinguish the material fact - the substance has changed - from any overly assured psychological explanation.
From precious icon to cold confrontation
The first golden background still strongly linked the work to the famous years of the Kiss and by Adèle Bloch-Bauer. By replacing it with a bluish gray, Klimt reduces the uniform shine and increases the contrast between the two groups. The void becomes readable like a clean material.
This decision is consistent with a broader evolution of his painting after the golden phase: bolder colors, freer floral patterns, more nervous contours. But there is no evidence that Klimt wanted to "reject" gold or illustrate a specific event. The transformation is first visible in the composition itself.
The final state does not remove ornament; it makes it conflictual. The blue and black crosses of Death confront the flowers and textiles of Life. Two decorative systems become two ways of occupying the world.
Love and motherhood in the face of time
Klimt had already treated love and the expectation of birth separately. In Life and Death, these experiences reach a larger community, exposed to the same limit.
The couple is still isolated under allegorical faces. In Life and Death'intimacy becomes one of the many states of the human group.
Pregnancy already places the beginning of life under the gaze of a threat. Klimt will develop this tension into a monumental composition.
At the Leopold Museum, level 4
The museum's online collection states that the work is currently on display on the fourth level. With its 180.8 × 200.6 cm, it imposes a physical relationship that digital reproductions cannot restore.
The museum keeps the work under number LM 630. It also presents a tactile model intended to make the composition accessible other than by sight alone.
The original frame is attributed to Josef Hoffmann. Traces of paint on this frame helped document the recovery campaigns: the transformation therefore does not only concern a comparison of images, it leaves material clues.
Four Klimts to prolong the reading
The images below show reproductions available in the store. They are used to compare Klimt themes and solutions; they do not replace the instructions for the originals.
Another construction of childhood, motherhood and old age.
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Pregnancy, prayer and the shadow of death in a vertical format.
See table →
A constellation of figures where fabrics and anatomy form a whirlwind.
See table →
The couple locks themselves in a golden coat, before the cold bottom of Life and Death.
See table →
Preserve the entire painting and its contrast
This image shows the reproduction offered by Alpha Reproduction. For this subject, fidelity does not only depend on faces: it requires a fairly cold gray background, a clearly separated Death, a small visible red club and sufficiently differentiated patterns in the Life group.
The product is distinct from the original work of the Leopold Museum. The formats and options offered on the sheet allow the reproduction to be adapted without transforming its orientation.
See Life and Death →Explore Klimt, symbolism and the Leopold Museum
These links were checked in the store on July 23, 2026. They lead to active collections, with their number of products at the time of verification.
Portraits, landscapes, allegories, drawings and large decorations.
Explore →17 WORKSAllegories and mythologyCompositions where Klimt transforms ideas into bodies and patterns.
Explore →64 WORKSLeopold MuseumA tour around the works associated with the Viennese collection.
Explore →947 WORKSSymbolismDreams, allegories, spirituality and concerns of the end of the century.
Explore →35 WORKSDeath and melancholyCompare symbolist responses to loneliness and mortality.
Explore →746 WORKSArt Nouveau paintingThe line, ornament and decorative surface around 1900.
Explore →Klimt and Vienna looking at this canvas
These documents place the work in the painter's career and in the midst of the Secession. They do not show the painting itself and are presented as historical archives.
A few years before the first state of Life and Death. The photograph shows the painter at the moment when his golden phase reaches a major intensity.
View free file →
The group defends an exhibition designed as a whole. Klimt left the association in 1905, but this ambition for total art remained noticeable in the large canvas.
View free file →What can be verified
Material information, successive reports, exhibitions and the 2022 incident are based on the Leopold Museum. Old and free images are linked to their original notices.
Resumption dates, dimensions, exposures, description of both states and current location.
View →MASTERPIECELeopold Museum · HighlightOfficial summary of the creation, the Rome medal and the recast of 1915.
View →FIRST STATEPhotography by Moriz NährNotice of the historical print which documents the composition before the covers.
View →CONSERVATIONIncident of November 15, 2022Press release confirming that the work and its frame have not been damaged.
View →ACCESSIBILITYTouch modelPresentation of the touch device available on level 4 of the museum.
View →FREE IMAGESWikimedia CommonsStates, details, preparatory drawing and photographs of the hanging.
View →Twelve answers on Life and Death
Are there two original paintings from Life and Death?
No. There is only one large canvas, modified by Klimt. The first state is known from photographs and old reproductions; the final state covers part of the previous painting.
When did Klimt paint Life and Death?
Execution began around 1910. The detailed notice from the Leopold Museum dates the first state from 1910/11 and distinguishes revivals in 1912/13 then in 1915/16.
Why do we sometimes see the date 1910/15?
This notation shortens the period from the beginning of the work to its major transformation. It is not contradictory with the more precise chronology 1910/11, 1912/13 and 1915/16.
What are the most visible differences between the two states?
The golden background turns bluish gray; Death stands up, smiles sinisterly and raises a small red club; the group of Life becomes more numerous and more compact.
Why did Klimt rework an already rewarded painting?
The exact reason is not known. Institutional sources note the overhaul without attributing a certain psychological motive to it. Visually, the modifications make the confrontation colder and more dramatic.
How many characters appear in the final state?
The Life group brings together nine people, from children to old women. They represent several ages and human relationships without constituting a precisely identified family.
Who is the scared young woman on the left?
His identity is not established like that of a documentary portrait. Its visual function is clear: its gaze connects the group from Life to approaching Death.
How big is Life and Death?
The Leopold Museum gives 180.8 × 200.6 cm. It is the second largest painting by Klimt still preserved.
Where is the painting located?
At the Leopold Museum in Vienna, under inventory number LM 630. The online collection indicates this currently on display on level 4.
Is the frame original?
Yes, the museum mentions Josef Hoffmann's original frame. Traces of paint on this frame contribute to the study of successive repetitions.
Was the painting damaged in 2022?
No. The black liquid thrown by activists hit the protective glass. The Leopold Museum said the canvas and original frame had not been damaged.
What format should I choose for a reproduction?
Horizontal orientation should be maintained and tight cropping avoided. The empty space between Death and Life is as much a part of the composition as the figures.
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