Day 19

Here's the drawing for today. It's Gustav Klimt's Judith I. It's a great painting. It's as haunting as it is beautiful. When I first saw my wife, I thought she looked familiar, and then I realized it's because she kind of resembles Judith I. Not that my wife is any kind of haunting...

This, to me, is one of his greatest paintings. It shows what he is fully capable of. His style is very unique - strong geometrical design juxtaposed with soft organic shapes flowing throughout. All of his paintings are incredibly interesting and unique. Which is weird because Gustav Klimt himself was known for being incredibly boring. There was a quote from one of his friends saying, "the only interesting thing about him is his hair" (which in modern days would be considered something like the start of a "comb-over")

In Austria, Gustav was a very big deal. He painted murals in the Vienna art school that were mostly destroyed by Adolf Hilter years later. Hilter wanted to be an artist more than anything (he was a decent watercolor artist actually... not that I'm trying to compliment the guy...). Rumor has it that he snapped after not getting excepted into the school for the second time. Since he was out of options, he decided to try the army, and...and well, you all know waht happened after that. So after his rise to power, one thing on his agenda was to ruin the Gustav Klimt murals... in addition to numerous pieces of priceless art - like a good portion of Monet's paintings. The Nazi's occupied Monet's house and used his paintings to set the soldier's boot on. What a bunch of swell guys!

Anyways, here's my cheap rip off for today