The Tree of Life Stoclet Frieze

Gustave Klimt

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Keywords: TreeLifeStocletFrieze

Work Overview

The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze
Gustav Klimt
Date: c.1909
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 195 cm × 102 cm (77 in × 40 in)
Style: Art Nouveau (Modern)
Period: Late works
Genre: symbolic painting
Location: Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria


The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze (French: L'Arbre de Vie, Stoclet Frieze) is a painting by an Austrian symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was completed in 1909 and is based on the Art Nouveau (Modern) style in a symbolic painting genre. The dimensions of the painting are 195 by 102 centimetres (77 by 40 in),[1] and it is housed at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria.[2]


The painting is a study for a series of three mosaics created by Klimt for a 1905-1911 commissioned work at the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, Belgium.The mosaics were created in the artist's Late Works period, and depict swirling Trees of Life, a standing female figure and an embracing couple. The mosaics are spread across three walls of the Palais' dining room, along with two figural sections set opposite each other.[3]


The iconic painting later inspired the external facade of the "New Residence Hall" (also called the "Tree House"), a colorful 21-story student residence hall at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts.


The Stoclet Frieze is a series of three mosaics created by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt for a 1905-1911 commission for the Palais Stoclet in Brussells. The panels depict swirling Tree of life|Trees of life, a standing female figure and an embracing couple. The mosaics are spread across three walls of the Palais' dining room, with the two larger, figural sections set opposite each other on the longer walls of the room. A smaller, geometric panel occupies the short wall separating them. The designs are formed from a variety of luxury materials, including marble, ceramic, gilded tiles and enamel along with pearls and other semi-precious stones.Freytag 2010, 365.


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Stoclet Frieze was amongst the most ambitious of all of Klimt's projects - a series of three mosaics for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels


This set of murals marked a significant and highly rewarding commission for Gustav Klimt. The considerable project took him from 1905-1911, although he was active on other work during this time.


There are three mosaic panels, designed for the internal walls of the dining room in the Palais Stoclet, Brussels. The three main areas of focus here are the stunning Tree of life, a standing female figure (The Expectation) plus an embracing couple (Fulfilment) which itself is similar to The Kiss.


There is also a narrow, geometric artwork (Knight) which sits in the middle of the room, serving as a dividing line for the other larger murals.


Artist Klimt was given a full licence to be creative and bold, with his clients being passionate lovers of modern art styles themselves. This freedom enabled Gustav to use all manner of media for this series, taking in the likes of marble, ceramics and enamel along with several semi-precious stones.


It is rare for an artist to be given the opportunity to receive commissioned work whilst being allowed to take in very much in his own direction, which underlined how the artist's reputation and strong relationships had helped him to manage his career with greater control.


The Stocklet Frieze: an artificial garden at the heart of the house
— Anette Freytag on Stoclet Frieze
An artist only rarely has the opportunity to execute a work of art in which his imagination takes wing, his ideas become reality and his artistry is able to fully unfold. ...Amongst these houses, the Palais Stoclet gleams like a precious jewel of exquisite beauty amongst stones of lesser value.
— A.S. Levetus, 1914 on Stoclet Frieze
Unveiling of the Refurbished Palais Stoclet


On the 22nd of September, 1912, a selection of Belgian architects were invited for the unveiling of the renovated grounds. Their reaction was one of awe and excitement. One visitor exclaimed, "... I think i'm on the planet Mars!..."


Every element of this building had been carefully considered and designed, from the gardens outside to the intricate silver cutlery, to the Tree of Life frieze. Josef Hoffmann had been behind the overall plan and was asked to create a location worthy of the stunning art collection that would be displayed within it.


The three-part mosiac frieze from Klimt has been installed a year earlier and was intended to produce a magical feeling as visitors enjoyed their meals and socialising within the dining room.


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Gustav Klimt and Art for a New Age
When is a picture of a tree more than just a simple tree? The idea of the Tree of Life with its connections to heaven and earth has been an important symbol since ancient times. In this lesson, we're going to explore an image that uses a tree as a metaphor for life and unity. But first, let's discuss the background of the artist who created it.


Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was an Austrian artist interested in the decorative qualities of art. In 1897 he helped found a group of artists called the Vienna Secession. They rebelled against conservative academic art in favor of more decorative surfaces and new ideas for the coming turn of the century. Klimt's work was known for its intense symbolism and erotic imagery. Sometimes viewed as scandalous and at other times celebrated, he became one of the most prominent artists of the Vienna Secession.


The Palais Stoclet
By the early 1900s, Klimt enjoyed great critical acclaim and financial success. This time in his life is sometimes called his Golden Phase because of his success and because many of his works used gold leaf to great decorative effect.


In 1905, Klimt was commissioned, along with several other artists, to decorate the interior of the Palais Stoclet, the home of a wealthy Belgian industrialist in Brussels. Between 1905 and 1911, he designed and created a series of three large panels as a frieze for the mansion's dining room. A frieze is a decorative band of ornament on a wall or walls near a ceiling. The Stoclet Frieze stretched across three walls of the dining room.


The Tree of Life and the Stoclet Frieze
Klimt's design for the Stoclet frieze included three parts, two almost identical large images with a tree and human figures opposite each other on the long walls and a smaller, more abstract image on the far wall.
The Tree of Life, which dominates both large images, is an old idea that dates back to prehistory. It is a symbolic image that connects life and death and heaven and earth. The roots of the tree begin underground, in the realm of the underworld. The trunk then breaks through to the earth and rises to the sky. The upper tree branches curl, twist and intertwine as they connect to the heavens. So, the Tree of Life represents the continuity of life as well as its complexities. It unites all elements of life. Klimt further emphasizes this connectedness by his use of a flattened style and design elements that envelope the entire surface.


This is also true of the human figures beside each tree. One is a single woman in a pose reminiscent of ancient Egyptian art. Called Expectation, she wears an elaborately patterned dress that expands as it gets closer to the ground. Beside the second tree is an embracing couple, wrapped in clothing that becomes a unifying decorative form. They're called Fulfillment. All the images feature a strong sense of flattened space and surface decoration. Clothing melds into patterns that echo the pattern of the tree.


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In some ways, we’re in familiar Klimt territory with this one. Like the Bloch-Bauer portrait, it was painted during Klimt’s “golden phase,” a style that focused on decorative patterns, mosaics and brilliant ores. Klimt’s earlier work had been more radical, but he calmed down after a particularly intense scandal involving three ceiling paintings that were seen as perverting the classic figures of “Philosophy,” “Medicine” and “Jurisprudence.” His travels to Venice and Ravenna at the time led to an interest in mosaics and Byzantine imagery, and those styles combined with the Viennese sensibilities in fashion and interior design to create the ravishing, pattern-stuffed portraits that are so iconic. 


But there’s one glaring difference between “The Tree of Life” and the other golden phase paintings: the tree. Klimt is known today for his portraits and human studies, but he had a side interest in landscape art, which he developed during his summer holidays by Attersee Lake. Unlike the golden phase paintings, the landscape works took their stylistic cues from Impressionism and Pointillism. So “The Tree of Life” can be seen as the synthesis of landscape content and golden phase styles. That’s why it’s been considered the only “landscape” he made during golden period. 


Symbolically, “The Tree of Life” also carries heavier spiritual and metaphysical meaning than much of Klimt’s work. It’s an image that appears across various religions and cultures, symbolizing the interconnectedness of the world. Klimt’s painting stresses that symbolism by stretching the tree across the canvas, as if linking the underworld, earth and heavens. Repeated motifs in the ground, the figures and the tree itself make it seem that they’re all composed of a single substance. In a way, it’s a visual effect typical of Klimt’s golden phase art: the decorative elements fusing with and elevating the central figures, but it also dissolves the barriers between them and their auric surroundings. It’s a beautiful fusion of form and content: golden phase technique finding the perfect home in the tree’s symbolic content.


Like Bloch-Bauer’s portrait, “The Tree of Life” has an odd history of private ownership. What we consider the “painting” was actually only a study for a massive mosaic installation for the Palais Stoclet in Brussels. This private mansion was built for banker and art lover Adolphe Stoclet and, sadly, it’s still closed to the public. It might not be enough dramatic fodder for a star-studded film, but it’s a good reminder that the politics of patronage and private ownership were deeply intertwined in Klimt’s work. Even when it seemed to diverge to more symbolic, metaphysical or natural motifs.