Harvard Art Museums > BR66.4: Pear Tree Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Pear Tree (Gustav Klimt) , BR66.4,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Oct 29, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/299849. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text A pear tree in full bloom dominates this early landscape by Klimt, the leading proponent of modernist painting in Vienna at the turn of the last century, when the city’s artists and designers rejected the conservative attitudes of the academy and endeavored to create a new art free from historical influence. While a horizontal format is traditionally used for landscapes, Klimt chose a square canvas — a pure geometric shape that was also the Vienna Secession’s dominant decorative motif. In the flowering branches, each dab of paint indicates a single leaf, blossom, or piece of fruit. The flat, flickering field of color evokes both postimpressionist painting and Byzantine mosaics. The left side of the work has a noticeably denser application of paint than the center or the right side. Klimt continued to add to the painting, filling in these bare spots, even after giving it to Emilie Flöge, his muse and mistress, in 1903. Identification and Creation Object Number BR66.4 People Gustav Klimt, Austrian (Vienna, Austria 1862 - 1918 Vienna, Austria) Title Pear Tree Other Titles Original Language Title: Birnbaum Classification Paintings Work Type painting Date 1903 (reworked by the artist 1903/1918) Culture Austrian Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/299849 Location Location Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin View this object's location on our interactive map Physical Descriptions Medium Oil and casein on canvas Dimensions 101 x 101 cm (39 3/4 x 39 3/4 in.) framed: 105.5 x 105.5 x 10.5 cm (41 9/16 x 41 9/16 x 4 1/8 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Gift of the artist to Emilie Flöge, Vienna, Austria. [Neue Galerie, Vienna, Austria (by 1933); Galerie St. Etienne, Paris, France (by 1939); Galerie St. Etienne, New York (by 1950)]; Otto Kallir, gift; to Fogg Museum (1956-1966) Note: Otto Kallir owned the Neue Galerie, Vienna, and the Galerie St. Etienne, Paris and New York. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Otto Kallir Accession Year 1966 Object Number BR66.4 Division European and American Art Contact am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Publication History IX Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della citta' di Venezia, exh. cat., Officine Grafiche C. Ferrari (Venice, 1910), p. 60 Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, 1965), p. 36, cat. no. 6, repr. Richard Bellamy, Focus on Light, exh. cat., New Jersey State Museum (Trenton, 1967), cat. no. 43, repr. Charles Werner Haxthausen, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University, Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1980), p. 40, repr. Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 369, p. 309, repr. Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 96, color plate; pp. 115, 276, repr. b/w cat. no. 463 Peter Nisbet and Emilie Norris, Busch-Reisinger Museum: History and Holdings, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1991), p. 76, ill. Toni Stooss, ed., Gustav Klimt, exh. cat., Verlag Gerd Hatje (Stuttgart, Germany, 1992), p. 134-135, cat. no. G 32 James Cuno, Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Ivan Gaskell, and William W. Robinson, Harvard's Art Museums: 100 Years of Collecting, ed. James Cuno, Harvard University Art Museums and Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (Cambridge, MA, 1996), pp. 334-335, repr. color Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997 Jane Kallir, Saved from Europe, Galerie St. Etienne (New York, NY, 1999), p. 24, plate 14 Stephan Koja, ed., Gustav Klimt: Landscapes, exh. cat., Prestel Verlag (Munich, Germany, 2002), plate no. 25 Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 187 Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 188, ill. Greg Stone, Artful Business: 50 Lessons from Creative Geniuses (Boston, 2016), p. 32, ill. (color) Aurélie Petiot, Le Préraphaélisme, Citadelles & Mazenod (Paris, 2019), repr. on pp.100-101 Alfred Weidinger, Gustav Klimt: L'Oeuvre Peint, Citadelles & Mazenod (Paris, 2021), pp. 276-277, cat. no. 163, repr. p. 276 Janis Staggs, Klimt Landscapes, exh. cat., Prestel (Munich/New York, 2024), p. 116, fig. 101 Exhibition History Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 02/05/1965 - 04/25/1965 Focus on Light, New Jersey State Museum, 05/20/1967 - 09/10/1967 Works from the 20th Century Collection of the Busch-Reisinger, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 06/15/1980 - 09/01/1980; Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York, 09/23/1980 - 10/24/1980 Deutsche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts aus dem Busch-Reisinger Museum, Stadtische Galerie im Stadelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, 10/23/1982 - 01/16/1983; Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin 30, 02/10/1983 - 04/17/1983; Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, 05/08/1983 - 06/26/1983 Gustav Klimt 1862-1918: Modernism in the Making, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 06/15/2001 - 09/16/2001 Gustav Klimt: Landscapes, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, 06/07/2002 - 09/02/2002 “As though my body were naught but ciphers”: Crises of Representation in Fin-de-Siècle Vienna, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 02/12/2005 - 06/12/2005 Re-View: S118 European & American Art since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/13/2008 - 04/09/2011 Re-View: European and American Art Since 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 05/03/2011 - 06/01/2013 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/24/2024; Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/09/2024 - 01/01/2050 Klimt Landscapes, Neue Galerie New York, New York, 02/15/2024 - 05/06/2024 Subjects and Contexts Google Art Project Collection Highlights Verification Level This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
