Stoclet Frieze Detail

It is ironic that the most lavish and complete example of the Vienna Secession style survives not in Vienna itself but in a city associated with a very different kind of Art Nouveau. This is the so-called Palais Stoclet on the outskirts of Brussels, commissioned by the Belgian financier Adolphe Stoclet who had lived in Vienna and chose the Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann rather than Victor Horta, the local master of the curvilinear Belgian Art Nouveau style. Every element within the house, down to the cutlery that graced the dining table, was created by Viennese artists and designers associated with the Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte. For the dining room, Klimt designed a magnificent mosaic, executed by Leopold Forstner in precious metals, semi-precious stones, enamel and coral against a background of white marble.

The richly decorative mosaic relates to the Byzantine style of paintings such as The Kiss and the first portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer, painted around the same time. The theme of expectation and fulfilment once again shows Klimt’s obsessive interest in human sexuality.