Two Girls with Oleander ~ Klimt

German Title : Zwei Mädchen mit Oleader
Location : Private Collection, New York
Year : 1890-92 Oil on Canvas 55 x 128
This youthful work is one of Klimt’s rare paintings in which the figures are in a real and recognizable natural outdoor setting, a setting that has not yet been transfigured into a precious ornamental arabesque as in his mature works. In Two Girls with Oleander, although not yet 30, Klimt demonstrated his total mastery of painting. During these years his interest focused on English art from the Victorian era and mainly pre-Raphaelite painting. This was the moment in which Klimt went beyond the narrow confines of painting as a historical reconstruction or 'photographic' realism and embarked on the path of stylistic decoration that would, within a few short years, lead him to the full poetics of symbolism. Larger view