The destroyed works of Klimt
On May 8, 1945, Immendorf Castle burned with a deposit of works evacuated from Vienna. The three faculty paintings, Schubert on piano, landscapes and portraits from the Lederer collection disappear. There remain photographs, some color reproductions and a history that is still partially uncertain.
What happened in Immendorf?
Immendorf Castle, in Lower Austria, served during the war as a repository for collections deemed safer outside Vienna. In the final days of the conflict, the building caught fire. The works that had been transported there are considered destroyed.
The date of May 8, 1945 is retained by the exhibition organized in 2025 by the MAK and the Klimt Foundation. Many accounts attribute the fire to retreating German troops. But recent research highlights that the precise sequence, responsibilities and exact condition of the depot at the time of the fire are not fully clarified.
The catastrophe is also inseparable from Nazi dispossession. Several paintings came from the collection of August and Serena Lederer, a Jewish family who had brought together Klimt's largest private ensemble. Expropriated, displaced and then burned, these works suffered persecution, dispossession and material destruction.
A disaster prepared by years of displacement
Faculty tables
Klimt paints Philosophy, Medicine and Case law for the University of Vienna. The scandal led to the order being abandoned.
Spoliations
After the Anschluss, Jewish collections, including that of the Lederers, were seized, dispersed or placed under Nazi control.
Immendorf becomes a depot
The castle houses works and objects evacuated from Vienna, supposedly protected from bombing.
Fire
In the chaos of the end of the war, the castle burned. The paintings kept on site are not recovered.
Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence
These immense ceiling paintings were to embody the rational power of academic disciplines. On the contrary, Klimt chooses darkness, the vulnerability of bodies, illness, desire and threat. Refused by the institution, they become after their destruction an invisible summit of his work.
Philosophy
A column of bodies seems to drift into an unanswered cosmos. Knowledge does not illuminate the world: it appears as an isolated face at the bottom of the composition.
Medicine
Life, death and illness form a river of bodies. Hygia, goddess of health, looks at us without promising healing.
Case law
A naked convict is caught in the tentacles of an octopus. The Erinyes and distant figures of the Law transform justice into a power of confinement.
Why reconstructions remain approximate
The complete photographs of the faculty paintings are in black and white. Hygie's colorful detail, period descriptions and related works provide clues, but they do not render each shade with certainty.
The Belvedere and Google Arts & Culture project proposed a recoloring based on historical research and an algorithm in 2021. The museum specifies that it does not claim authenticity: it is an approximation allowing us to think about scale and the chromatic effect.
See the Belvedere project →Schubert on piano and Music II
Nikolaus Dumba orders two supraports from Klimt for his palace on Ringstrasse. Designed for a specific interior, they survived the dismantling of the decor but perished in Immendorf.
Schubert on piano, 1899
Music becomes social light: candles, fabrics, silhouettes and silent concentration surround the composer. The ancient color photography that circulates today constitutes a crucial testimony.
Music II, 1897 -1898
Hieratic figure, instrument and mask condense listening into allegory. This work should not be confused with other versions of the musical theme painted by Klimt.
A gallery of paintings that we will never see again
The images below are archival reproductions. Their quality varies, but they make it possible to measure the diversity of the loss: landscape, portrait, couple, garden and mythology.
The Golden Apple Tree
A frontal tree, saturated with fruits and leaves, transforms the garden into an almost cosmic surface.
Wally
The light face and the colorful dress belong to the late, more open and chromatic period.
Friends II
Two bodies, fabrics and an exotic bird come together in a square where the pattern dissolves the depth.
Garden path with chickens
The central perspective remains, but the flowers absorb it into a plant tapestry.
Leda
Klimt compresses the myth of Leda and the swan into a square, intimate and enveloping form.
Gastein
A late landscape known through photography. The Klimt Database counts him among the works destroyed in Immendorf.
What works by Klimt burned?
The 2025 MAK -Klimt Foundation exhibition cites the following sets and tables. Wider lists add studies, compositional sketches and Gastein.
| Together | Works cited | Type of documentation retained |
|---|---|---|
| Faculty tables | Philosophy, Medicine, Case law | Black and white photographs; Hygieia color detail; studies and descriptions. |
| Composition projects | Painted sketches or compositions related to Philosophy and Case law | Old reproductions and notices; variable presence in rescue lists. |
| Dumba Palace | Music II, Schubert on piano | Period reproductions, including color images. |
| Lederer Collection | The Golden Apple Tree, Country garden with crucifix, Wally, Friends II, Garden path with chickens, Leda | Photographs and printed reproductions of uneven quality. |
| Other lists | Gastein and works by other artists | Catalog notices, photographs and provenance archives. |
Photography, recoloring and memory of the originals
A reproduction does not replace the scale, material or actual colors of a painting. However, it can preserve a composition and make a new investigation possible.
The closest proof
Old photos document the contours, values and certain states of the works. They don't always say color or texture.
Argued hypotheses
They combine historical sources and calculation. They must remain labeled as approximations, not as authentic resurrections.
A distinct hardware memory
A copy may convey a composition or motif, but its author, date and technique must be clearly indicated.
Gardens, music and symbolism still accessible
The lost works illuminate the surviving paintings: the same plant structures, allegorical figures and decorative surfaces remain visible.
Beethoven frieze
A mural preserved to measure the ambition of lost paintings.
The apple tree
A tree preserved to understand the lost Golden Apple Tree.
Sunflower garden
Vegetation transformed into a wall of color.
The Kiss
A preserved icon of Viennese maturity.
Understanding Immendorf and the Lost Paintings
When did Immendorf Castle burn?
The date of May 8, 1945 is retained by the exhibition of the MAK and the Klimt Foundation. The fire occurred in the very last days of the war in Europe.
Who burned down the castle?
Many accounts attribute the fire to retreating German troops. Recent research, however, reminds us that the precise circumstances are not completely clarified.
How many Klimts were destroyed?
There is not a single accepted number for all perimeters. Sources cite three faculty paintings, two supraports, several paintings from the Lederer collection, compositional sketches and other works like Gastein.
Are the colors of the faculty tables known?
Only in part. The complete works are best known through black and white photographs. A color detail of Hygieia and historical descriptions were used to produce hypothetical recolorizations.
Could the paintings have been stolen before the fire?
This possibility fuels narratives and speculation, but no solid public evidence today establishes the survival of great works. They remain classified as destroyed.
Can we see the ruins of Immendorf today?
The burned castle did not survive as a Klimt museum. Photographs of ruins, plans and models are kept in archives and were presented by MAK and the Klimt Foundation.
Exhibitions, scientific bases and archives
The images are reproductions of works by Gustav Klimt that have fallen into the public domain and are hosted on the store's CDN to avoid broken links. Black and white photographs are kept as such; no recolorization is presented here as an original.
0 comments