Gustav Klimt · Attersee · 1908 -1912
Kammer Castle: five paintings for the same motif
Between 1908 and 1912, Klimt looked at the same castle from the water, the hill, the bank and finally its alley. Five paintings are enough to take the architecture from the luminous panorama to the almost abstract plant screen.
Direct response
What are the five paintings in the series?
The reference group includes Kammer Castle on Attersee I around 1908, version II of 1909, versions III and IV of 1910, then Driveway in front of Kammer Castle from 1912. The catalogs raisonnés link them with their numbers 159, 166, 171, 172 and 181.
The fifth painting is therefore not commonly called "version V". Klimt abandons the face-to-face with the building and places himself in the alley leading to the castle. This last step shows how a series can continue without repeating exactly the same framing.
Chronological reading
The castle approaches, disappears, then becomes a destination
The five paintings do not form a mechanical progression. Rather, they reveal five solutions to the same problem: how to fit massive architecture into a square landscape without losing the sensation of the lake and vegetation?
The castle as a light strip
In the first version, the surface is divided between reflective water and the bank occupied by the castle with the church of Seewalchen. The high horizon compresses the sky. The reflections do not faithfully reproduce the buildings: they extend their colors and transform the lake into a second architecture.
The only view taken from the garden
Klimt leaves the opposite bank and looks from a height of Schörfling. The slopes of the land become flexible compartments, almost land waves. The castle slips between the plant masses instead of dominating the landscape. This version was presented at the Venice Biennale in 1910 and then in Rome in 1911.
View n° 3 · work of the hero
The facade transforms into a vertical mosaic
The third version, visible at the opening of the article, returns facing the castle from the area of the old Hotel Seehof. The framing tightens: the light facade, the trees and their reflection fill almost the entire square. The water line is difficult to locate, which disturbs the separation between real building and reflected image.
The aligned windows provide a regular grid. Klimt confronts it with vibrant foliage and soft bands of water. The architecture remains recognizable, but above all it becomes a rhythm of light rectangles, green shadows and reflections.
The castle behind a screen of foliage
The fourth version retains water, vegetation and architecture, but branches and foliage gain presence. The building is no longer an isolated subject: it must be found in a network of greens, whites and reflections. Presented at the Great Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1914, this variant further pushes the fusion between the pattern and the surface.
The driveway replaces the facade
The group's final painting follows the strip of land planted with lime trees that connected the old water tower to the shore. The crowns meet in a dark vault; their irregular trunks frame the alley. In the background, the yellow baroque building becomes an arrival point. The architectural motif has not disappeared: it has moved away and organizes the whole path.
Compare painting and location
An ancient water tower turned peninsula
The castle juts into the lake on a narrow peninsula. This situation explains the variety of viewpoints: from the water or the opposite bank, the mass appears to float; from Schörfling it blends into slopes and gardens; from the alley, it becomes the destination of a land axis.
Klimt stayed at Villa Oleander, on the other bank, between 1908 and 1912. He could observe the castle over the hours, take a boat, walk around and modify its framing according to the light. The fixed pattern thus becomes a mobile experience.
What Klimt eliminates
No anecdote, almost no story
The painter tells neither the owners of the castle nor the social life around the lake. The windows are rarely inhabited, the boats become secondary and the walkers disappear. This absence of figures transforms the place into an object of contemplation.
The building serves as a measure. Its facades, windows and roofs impose straight lines that water and trees distort. With each painting, Klimt tests a new balance between geometry and natural growth.
The same reason, five decisions
The series shows how Klimt constructs a landscape
From 1900, his landscapes almost always adopted the square. He used a small pierced viewfinder to isolate fragments of reality and check if a framing could become a painting.
Lake, hill, shore or alley: physical movement changes the entire composition.
The sky is narrowing and the surface of the lake or garden occupies almost the entire square.
The plans remain readable, but stack like strips of a tapestry.
Windows, leaves and reflections become colored units that respond to each other.
Neighboring works
The park and pond are not two additional versions
They belong to the same living room and illuminate Klimt's fascination with the estate, but the catalogs distinguish these compositions from the series of five views of the castle.
The park
The tight crowns become a wall of touches. The castle disappears entirely: only the sensation of a green vault remains.
The Castle Pond
Water becomes the main subject. The banks and vegetation are reflected without architecture governing the composition.
Extend the trip
Attersee-related reproductions
These four different works complete the series without reusing the images already shown in the article.
Reference sources
To check the series
Frequently asked questions
Kammer Castle in eight answers
How many paintings did Klimt devote to Kammer Castle?
The reference group includes five paintings produced between 1908 and 1912: versions I to IV, then the alley in front of the castle.
Is there a painting called "Kammer V Castle"?
This name is not the one generally used. The fifth issue of the catalog raisonné corresponding to the group is Driveway in front of Kammer Castle, painted in 1912.
Where is version III located?
Kammer Castle on the Attersee III, dated 1909 -1910, belongs to the Belvedere in Vienna.
Which version was exhibited at the Venice Biennale?
Version II, painted in 1909, was presented in the Klimt Hall of the 1910 Venice Biennale.
Why are tables square?
The square stabilizes the composition and allows Klimt to balance architecture, vegetation and reflections without favoring the panoramic horizontal.
Was Klimt painting from a boat?
He sometimes used a boat on the Attersee and worked outdoors. For each version, however, this general context must be distinguished from precisely documented points of view.
Does the Castle Park belong to the five views?
No. It is a work associated with the estate, dated 1909, but it is cataloged separately from the series of five.
Can we visit Kammer Castle?
The building is privately owned and can be seen mainly from outdoor spaces and routes around Schörfling. Access conditions may change: consult local tourist information before traveling.
Compare Klimt frames at home
Start with the thoughtful facade of Version III, then pair it with a view of water or the driveway to bring two ways of looking at the same place into dialogue.
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