The Three Ages of Woman
Le tre età della donna
Rome, Italy
National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM)
About MIBACT | National Gallery of Modern Art (GNAM), Rome
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GNAM)
1905
Gustav Klimt (1862, Baumgarten-1918, Vienna)
inv. 951
Oil on canvas
171 cm x 171 cm
The Three Ages of Woman is one of the few works by Gustav Klimt, the main artist of the Vienna Secession movement, in Italy. The painting was exhibited in 1911 at the International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Rome inside the Austrian Pavilion built by the architect Josef Hoffman (1870-1956). An entire room was dedicated to Klimt (The Three Ages of Woman, The Kiss, The Sisters and several portraits). On this occasion the painting of The Three Ages of Woman won a prize and was subsequently bought by the Italian State along with other 51 paintings and seven sculptures in order to be displayed inside the newborn National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. The canvas, painted in the artist’s maturity, shows an old woman in profile with her body carrying the signs caused by the passing of time. The young woman and mother next to her and frontally depicted, holds her sleeping daughter. The central theme of the canvas is the three steps of woman’s life marked by childhood, maturity and old age. The outstanding “verism”, or “truth” of the figures is in sharp contrast to the decorative background that, with its gold and geometric decorations, is reminiscent of the Byzantine mosaics the artist saw during his voyages to Ravenna in 1903. The use of metals, glaze, coloured glass, and gold show the vogue of orientalism that spread among the artists who wanted to free themselves from western art conventions.
Copyright image: Soprintendenza alla Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea.
Marina Minozzi "The Three Ages of Woman" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;it;244;en
Prepared by: Marina Minozzi
Copyedited by: Anne Dowell
MWNF Working Number: IT2 103
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