--- type: magazine_content title: Why did Gustav Klimt use gold? language: en url: "https://www.belvedere.at/en/stories/why-did-gustav-klimt-use-gold" --- # Why did Gustav Klimt use gold? ![Image](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_width/public/2022-04/4737.jpg.webp?itok=eznqqnvs) Who? What? Why? **Category:** Artist Collection [Klimt](javascript:void(0);) **Published:** 11.06.2026 **Reading time:** 5 min read When people think of Gustav Klimt, they almost inevitably think of gold: shimmering surfaces, intricate ornamentation, and paintings that feel less like windows onto another world than precious, enigmatic objects in their own right. The Kiss, in particular, is almost unimaginable without it. But why did Klimt use gold in the first place? **Text:** Lisa Ebner-Kollmann **Photos:** Belvedere, Wien ![Beethoven Frieze — Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze, 1901/1902, Belvedere, Vienna / Permanent loan at the Secession, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2026-06/5987-5-2011-3.jpeg.webp?itok=QtU6RK9g) The answer is more fascinating than it may appear at first glance. For Klimt, gold was not merely decorative. It was a powerful artistic device through which he challenged long-established traditions of painting. **5 Facts About Klimt’s Gold** • Gustav Klimt used real gold leaf, silver, and platinum. • His intense fascination with gold began around 1900. • In Judith I, Klimt used real gold leaf on a large scale for the first time. • The Golden Period reached its peak with Adele Bloch-Bauer I and The Kiss. • Klimt used gold not only in portraits and allegorical paintings, but also in landscapes such as Sunflower. **Why was gold unusual in painting?** *Gold Against Illusion* During the Middle Ages, gold was widely used in painting. Gold backgrounds enhanced the sense of grandeur and solemnity, particularly in religious works. With the Renaissance, however, a different understanding of art gradually took hold: paintings were expected to represent the world as convincingly as possible. A painting came to be understood as a kind of window onto the world, inviting viewers to look into an apparently real space. Perspective, light, and shadow were used to create the illusion of depth and reality. Real gold was only partially compatible with this ideal. It shines, reflects light, and draws attention to the painting’s surface. Rather than creating the illusion of depth, it emphasizes the flatness of the picture plane. Instead of imitating reality, it highlights the painting itself as a precious object. In this context, true artistic skill was thought to lie in imitating the appearance of gold with paint rather than applying real gold to the surface. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Klimt deliberately reversed this logic. He was less interested in creating a convincing illusion of space than in exploring the painting as a precious, decorative, and meaningful object in its own right. **How did Klimt discover gold for his art?** *From painted gold to real gold leaf* Klimt, too, did not start out using real gold right away. In his early works, golden objects or backgrounds initially appear painted – that is, imitated with paint. Around 1900, however, he began to engage more and more intensively with gold as a material. An important step in this direction was Judith I, completed in 1901. Here, Klimt used real gold leaf on a large scale for the first time—not merely as an accessory, but as a central component of the painting’s impact. From then on, gold became one of his most important artistic tools. Klimt used it for backgrounds, jewelry, garments, and ornamental surfaces. Later, he also incorporated silver and platinum. This did not make the painting more realistic, but rather more precious, more two-dimensional, and at the same time more mysterious. **How did Klimt work with gold?** *More than just gold leaf* Klimt’s use of gold was technically astonishingly diverse. He worked with gold leaf, but also with silver, platinum, gold dust, and fine gold powder, which he bound in oil and could apply with a brush like paint. For him, it was not just about the shine. Different preparations of the painting surfaces ensured that the metal layers appeared differently: smooth, grainy, matte, shiny, or plastically highlighted. Sometimes Klimt even lightly modeled the surface to give the gold additional texture. His golden paintings therefore derive their vitality not only from the material itself, but also from its treatment. Their effect changes depending on the light. They appear flat and ornamental, yet at the same time alive and dynamic. ![Painting: Portrait of a woman with brown hair, her eyes half closed, looking lasivious; the picture is mainly dominated by the colour Gold — Gustav Klimt, Judith — Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2022-04/4737.jpg.webp?itok=qNbU3znY) > Klimt worked with gold leaf, but also with silver, platinum, gold dust, and fine gold powder, which he bound in oil and could apply with a brush like paint. ![Painting of a man and a woman, closely winded on a meadow; the picture is dominated by the colours Gold, Yellow, Brown and Green — Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (Lovers) — Photo: Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2022-04/912.jpg.webp?itok=_p6OTkjx) **What did gold mean to Klimt?** *Jewelry, Symbol, and Modern Visual Language* Klimt’s gold is connected to very different pictorial traditions. Byzantine mosaics, medieval gold backgrounds, Japanese lacquer work, and East Asian art influenced his conception of what a painting could be. For Klimt, gold was not merely a sign of wealth or luxury. It could transport the visible world, detach figures from reality, and lend a motif an almost timeless quality. His paintings thus do not simply depict a scene. They combine ornamentation, symbolism, and personal experiences into a unique visual language. This is particularly evident in the so-called Golden Period. In Adele Bloch-Bauer I, the woman portrayed is almost completely surrounded by gold, silver, and ornamentation. Body, jewelry, clothing, and background merge into one another. The real person appears both present and ethereal – as a modern woman and an almost iconic visual being. The Kiss also thrives on this tension. The couple stands in a flowering meadow against a dark, gold-speckled background. Their bodies are enveloped in sweeping robes that almost merge into a shared ornamental form. The moment feels intimate, yet also solemn and almost sacred. With *Judith I* and *The Kiss*, the Belvedere’s collection includes two key works from the creative phase in which gold became one of Gustav Klimt’s most important means of expression. **Why did Klimt also use gold in landscapes?** *Sunflower and the Golden Pictorial Space* Klimt used gold not only in portraits and allegorical paintings. He also incorporated it into landscapes such as Sunflower. This is particularly interesting because, at first glance, landscape painting has little to do with precious metal overlays. Yet Klimt did not view landscape as a lifelike depiction of a place. His landscapes often resemble tapestries: square sections, dense planes, ornamental structures. Plants, flowers, water, and light are not merely observed, but translated into patterns and color. In this context, gold also fits into a landscape. It does not simply enhance the value of the painting, but reinforces its decorative, two-dimensional effect. Nature appears not as an illusionistic space, but as a condensed pictorial surface – entirely in keeping with Klimt’s modern conception of painting. **Why do Klimt’s golden paintings continue to fascinate us today?** Perhaps Klimt’s golden paintings remain so powerful today because they unite opposites: craftsmanship and painting, surface and depth, sensuality and symbolism, tradition and modernity. Gold makes his paintings precious, but not merely luxurious. It alters their logic. It breaks with the notion that painting should primarily imitate reality. Instead, Klimt turns the painting itself into an event: a surface of color, light, ornament, and meaning. That is why gold is more than a trademark for Klimt. It is a key to his modern conception of art – and one of the reasons why his works remain so distinctive to this day. ![Gustav Klimts Meisterwerk Sonnenblume: Die Blume ragt bildmittig vor einer grünen Wand aus Blättern empor — Gustav Klimt, Sunflower, 1907/1908 — Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Gustav%20Klimt_Sonnenblume_1907_1908.jpg.webp?itok=-UYPYwSs) ## Gallery - ![The image depicts a couple embracing. The figures are surrounded by a shiny golden background that is richly adorned. The one figure appears to be wrapped in a magnificent garment decorated with various patterns and floral motifs. Their faces are close together, and their eyes are closed, conveying an intimate and deep connection. The lower part of the image is filled with a lush vegetative depiction. [AI-generated with ChatGPT] — Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (Lovers), 1908/09 — Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-08/Gustav%20Klimt_Kuss_Belvedere.jpg.webp?itok=IvEiXG_2) - ![The image depicts a woman dressed in an ornate garment, posed in a way that radiates confidence. Her face has a gentle expression, and she gazes directly at the viewer. The background features golden and ornamental motifs reminiscent of a decorative style. The composition is vertically oriented, and the frame is elaborately designed. [AI-generated with ChatGPT] — Gustav Klimt, Judith, 1901 — Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-08/Gustav%20Klimt_Judith.jpg.webp?itok=upNtTrXy) - ![Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze — Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze, 1901 — Belvedere, Vienna / Permanent loan at the Secession, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/media-directories/5987-8.jpg.webp?itok=JClWKh12) - ![Beethoven Frieze — Gustav Klimt, Beethoven Frieze, 1901/1902, Belvedere, Vienna / Permanent loan at the Secession, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2026-06/5987-5-2011-3.jpeg.webp?itok=QtU6RK9g) - ![Gustav Klimts Meisterwerk Sonnenblume: Die Blume ragt bildmittig vor einer grünen Wand aus Blättern empor — Gustav Klimt, Sunflower, 1907/1908 — Photo: Johannes Stoll / Belvedere, Vienna](https://www.belvedere.at/sites/default/files/styles/full_content_width_no_crop/public/2025-02/Gustav%20Klimt_Sonnenblume_1907_1908.jpg.webp?itok=-UYPYwSs)