Tempera and oil on paper. Featuring an abstract landscape with surrealist tree. Austrian Symbolist Art Nouveau School, signed Gustav Klimt on the lower left corner. Verso inscribed G.U.9L with stamp. 28.8 x 20.9 cm (11.3 x 8.2 inches). PROVENANCE: Private estate (Toronto, Canada).

Gustav Klimt (Austrian, 1862-1918) is best known for his opulently gilded art nouveau portraits of women that epitomize fin-de-siecle Vienna. His Symbolist pastiches of pale nudes, allegorical gardens and erotic content served as the basis for many American psychedelic poster designs in the 1960s. Early in his career, Klimt was supported generously by the Viennese community, and received several commissions for murals in theaters and the Museum Kunsthistorisches. Early narrative paintings depicted heavy subjects such as anxiety, doubt, sexuality, and death, but in later years, he turned toward landscape painting, exploring light and abstract patterns of nature. His most famous paintings are The Kiss (1907) and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907), which sold for a record auction price of more than 100 million dollars in 2006.

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American, 19th century : This work was executed by an unknown hand, and can only be identified by origin (i.e., region, period).