Museum of the City of Rijeka hosts early works of Klimt brothers

The Museum of the City of Rijeka is hosting the exhibition ‘Path to Success – Early Works of Gustav and Ernst Klimt’. The collection focuses on the formative years of the brothers during their training at the School of Arts and Crafts in Vienna, now known as the University of Applied Arts.

Central to the exhibition are five early drawings that demonstrate the artists' academic training in proportion, light, and volume. A notable piece is the ‘Brunnova Head’, a study of an ancient female head created by Gustav Klimt in 1878 when he was fifteen years old. This is his second oldest known signed and dated work.

The exhibition also features four rose studies. While previously attributed to Gustav, recent research indicates they were created by his younger brother, Ernst, between 1880 and 1883. These works are presented alongside the context of nine monumental allegorical paintings commissioned for the Rijeka Theatre in 1885, which serve as significant evidence of the brothers' early collaborative efforts.