Apple Tree I

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Apple Tree I: Gustave Klimt

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Gustave Klimt Oil Painting - Apple Tree I

Keywords: Apple, Tree

Work Overview: Apple Tree I
Gustav Klimt
Date: c.1912
Style: Art Nouveau (Modern)
Period: Late works
Genre: landscape
Media: oil, canvas
Dimensions: 110 x 110 cm
Location: Private Collection

At first glance Klimt's landscapes would seem to show a smoother line of development than his figural works. While they evidence a parallel transition from silky pseudo-Impressionism to the more crystalline painted mosaic style, the latter phase is not distinguished by the rigid geometricity and harsh metallic colors found in the portraits and allegories. Klimt's passage into his last, most painterly period thus also transpired more organically in the landscapes, for the landscapes had never altogether succumbed to the linearity of the middle stage. In fact, it may be said that landscape was the wellspring from which much of his revitalized later art sprang, and even his portraits benefited from spatial devices perfected in this genre.

Klimt was a master of tricks that simultaneously created and destroyed the illusion of depth, and in a painting such as Apple Tree I, one can logically distinguish at least four distinct planes: the larger flowers in the foreground, the field between them and the tree, the tree itself, and the lush foliage beyond. Yet the overall pattern of brushstroke insistently informs us that this is a sham, the painting is as flat as the canvas that supports it. Such deliberate manipulation of the picture plane catered to the abstractionist tendencies that had always been inherent in Klimt's approach to landscape. Indeed, whereas in his portraits convention (not to mention the sitter's vanity) demanded a persistent loyalty to volumetric verisimilitude, Klimt in his landscapes was freer both in his manner of seeing and in his ultimate goals. The landscapes (with no one to please but Klimt himself) are the most purely artistic works in his oeuvre, evidencing a painter's delight in form, color, and texture for their own sakes. Particularly in his more abstract late landscapes, Klimt achieved a unity of conception that brings these works, like the last landscapes of Claude Monet, to the very forefront of Modernism.

Apple Tree I painted near the end of Klimt's career in 1912 showcases his tribute to the classic landscape style, steering away from metallic shades and intricate patterns.

The Apple Tree I, as evident through its title illustrate a grand apple tree painted in multi colours bearing red fruit off of the branches.

The painting is seized by an array of shapes and colours, blending into the lush greenery within the background. The landscape steers away from traditional linear patterns into a swirl of shapes descending outside of the branches.

The mosaic styled piece accentuates the bright colours while organically highlighting the landscape in a modern form. Klimt had strategically worried within the painting to portray the illusion of depth, even while using bright colours is a modern displaced form.

The viewer is able to witness that the painting deepens towards the middle of the piece, instead of a flat surface. This method enabled Klimt to incorporate a landscape into the textured piece in relation to the apple tree an the meadow.

The focal point of the piece if based on the grand apple tree located within the middle of the painting. The tree holds a circular shape, levelled closely to the ground as the trunk grows as a column upwards. Out the sides of the brown trunk in a perpendicular form, multiple thin branches grow.

Bright shades of dark and light green, paired with dark and light blues hold as the foundation of the colour scheme throughout the leaves. Bright red shaped apples hang in abundance on the branches along the tree, adding a pop of colour to the mosaic of blue and green.

The landscape of the plain is seized through a colourful meadow, with linear coloured small brush strokes illustrating grass. The green coloured grass deepens the painting, and is transparent through the apple tree elongating the landscape. Bright coloured flowers fill the meadow with red, purple light pink and white flowers with a yellow middle at the bottom of the painting.

Small yellow flowers fill the remainder of the painting, again transparent through the apple tree. Behind the apple tree, the viewer is able to witness another darker coloured green tree in the background, and a glimpse of the bright blue sky letting in a thin white stray of light.

The positive painting steers away from Klimt's highly recognized gold colour work, however encompasses a classic modern style paired with an array of bright colours. The rich glow throughout the piece based on the array of shades, paints a welcoming optimistic piece while illustrating the beauty of nature in all of its form.

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Gustave Klimt

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