Schloss Kammer on Lake Attersee III (1909/1910) by Gustav KlimtBelvedere
In the summers from 1908 to 1912, Gustav Klimt and the Flöge family rented Villa Oleander in Kammer near Schörfling on the Attersee where they spent a few weeks each year to relax. The villa on the lake offered a charming view of Schloss Kammer.
Schloss Kammer on the AtterseeAustrian National Library
Schloss Kammer is a relatively simple castle building from the 17th century. It charmingly adorns the landscape on a peninsula protruding into the Attersee. Klimt captured the castle in painting form in five scenes, each painted from different points of view.
Schloss Kammer on Lake Attersee III (1909/1910) by Gustav KlimtBelvedere
This castle scene was painted by the master artist from the opposite shore of the lake. Klimt overcame the relatively large distance between the shore and the castle using a telescope. This also explains why the composition of the picture looks like a close-up.
The fragmented character of the composition is typical for many of Klimt's landscape paintings. In these paintings, the foreground and background, including the sky and horizon, frequently cannot be seen. This was often because the subjects were artificially zoomed in using a pair of binoculars.
As Klimt constantly viewed the scene through the telescope, he stayed very close to the actual topography. The master artist did not allow himself to deviate much for the sake of aesthetics. Therefore, the original locations of many of these landscape paintings can still be precisely determined today.
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Schloss Kammer today, seen from the Seewalchen waterfront.
Text: Österreichische Galerie Belvedere / Franz Smola
© Österreichische Galerie Belvedere
www.belvedere.at
