Exhibition Presentation

Exhibition Presentation 2

About the exhibition

Peleş Castle is the most important repository in Romania of Gustav Klimt's creation within the Künstler-Compagnie workshop. The works were created between 1883-1886, at the behest of King Carol I, by the young Viennese painters Gustav Klimt, Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch. Künstler-Compagnie was a painting workshop, active between 1879-1892, fulfilling orders for the decoration of private and public buildings, throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire and beyond its borders. Five years after its founding, in 1883, the three artists received their first major order. The work consisted of illustrating three thematic programs, intended for the decoration of the Sinaia residence of the King of Romania. The young painters had executed between 1879-1883, two other important orders for the great Viennese Ringstrasse construction site, in collaboration with their former teachers at the Kunstgewerbeschule. Starting with 1886, the company will be hired for extensive decoration projects, Hermesvilla (property of Empress Elisabeth of Habsburg) and monumental buildings on the Ringstrasse, Burgtheater, Kunsthistorisches Museum, etc.

The creation of collaborative works of art in the workshop raises at least one question: what was the role of each of the Klimt brothers? As Gerbert Giese indicates, Ernst seems to have played a subordinate role, at least initially, in the relationship with his colleagues, due to his age. He was thus assigned the task of creating the compositional frames and backgrounds, there are exceptions as we will see. Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch each developed a project regarding the work they were commissioned to do. The painted sketchbooks and watercolors were subject to the analysis and option of the commissioner, who chose either an individual solution or an intermediate one, combining both projects. It is assumed that this also happened in the case of the orders made by the Romanian sovereign and in this sense it would be interesting to identify the preparatory sketches for the decoration at Peleş. We have seen above the conditions that the copies were to meet. We were also able to identify a possible way to recommend the Künstler-Compagnie workshop.

As for the precise testimonies regarding the order, the only ones found so far are three documents. First of all, it is a receipt signed by Joseph Kott, regarding the creation, by him, of the decoration of the small theater: the frieze and the ceiling painting and a series of copies for the Great Salon, paintings for which J. Kott received the sum of 1886 florins. Considering the fact that the decoration of the Theater Hall was created, according to the signatures on the works, by Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch, it is plausible that, in a first stage, Künstler-Compagnie worked with Joseph Kott's firm. This document is supplemented by two other customs receipts, proving that Gustav Klimt and Franz Matsch, in 1885 and Ernst Klimt, in 1886, deposited crates of paintings at the customs point of a Vienna train station to be shipped to Peleş Castle.

The works still on site today can be grouped into three distinct categories: the Gallery of Ancestral Paintings of Peleş Castle, the king's ancestors from the House of Hohenzollern; copies of works by great masters and original works found in the Theater Hall and on the ceiling of the Grand Staircase. All of these will be exhibited starting in September in the exhibition halls of Peleş Castle.

Exhibition Opening

Promo

Visiting the Exhibition

The exhibition was visited during:
September 15 – December 15, 2012.

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