Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) was a celebrated figure and innovator in modern Austrian art. Rudolf Leopold developed an early interest in the art of "Vienna 1900" and began collecting works by Gustav Klimt in the fifties. The collector's preferences did not always coincide with the generally dominant opinions of art critics at the time; instead, he relied solely on his incorruptible eye for artistic quality and on the hidden painterly aspects of the works he selected. Today, the Leopold Museum in Vienna, named after him, has one of the world's most important collections of modern Austrian art. The catalogue of the Klimt works in the collection contains eight magnificent paintings, including major works such as the landscape Die grosse Pappel II (Aufsteigendes Gewitter) (1902/03) or the allegory Tod und Leben (1910/11, revised 1915/16), as well as around one hundred drawings by the master.

Text by: Marian Bisanz-Prakken, Otto Breicha, Elisabeth Leopold, Rudolf Leopold, Stephan Pumberger, Franz Smola, Birgit Summerauer, Sandra Tretter