Gustav Klimt’s Painting “The Tall Poplar II (Coming Storm”) on an Easel in the Garden of Klimt’s Studio, 1912/18

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) commissioned his long-time friend, the photographer Moriz Nähr (1859—1945), to make reproduction photographs of his paintings. A large number of such photos were made in the artist’s studio or outdoors in the open air, sometimes also in galleries. This photo shows Klimt’s painting The Tall Poplar II (Coming Storm) put up on an easel; the shot was taken in the garden of Klimt’s studio in Feldmühlgsasse between 1912 and 1918. The artist had begun the square landscape, painted 1902/03, somewhere near the shore of Lake Attersee where he spent many of his summers, accompanied most of the time by Emilie Flöge (1874–1952). In choosing a pictorial subject, the artist usually focused on a specific element of the landscape which he then brought to the canvas by means of a so-called Viewfinder—a piece of cardboard with a square whole cut out. Viewfinders were used both by Klimt and art photographers like Hugo Henneberg (1863–1918) or Hans Watzek (1848–1903) as in instrument to determine the optimal picture detail.

BH, 2021