Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was one of the most influential artists at the end of the 19th century, and was the founder of the Viennese Secession movement. He used the movement to express his criticism of traditional art, which was characterised by its opposition to change and the refusal to succumb to a fixed vision of Modernism. Klimt took inspiration from the slow but unstoppable decline of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the multitude of cultures from which it was composed. He was an artist of great eroticism and sensuality, and, together with Kokoschka and Schiele, is one of the great masters of Expressionism. This book brings together Klimt's finest paintings, along with a text that demonstrates the extraordinary eclecticism of this great artist.