In 1897 Klimt’s mature style emerged, and he founded the
Vienna Sezession, a group of painters who revolted against academic art in favour of a highly decorative style similar to
Art Nouveau. Soon thereafter he painted three allegorical murals for the ceiling of the
University of Vienna auditorium that were violently criticized; the erotic symbolism and pessimism of these works created such a scandal that the murals were rejected. His later murals, the
Beethoven Frieze (1902) and the murals (1909–11) in the dining room of the Stoclet House in Brussels, are characterized by precisely linear drawing and the bold and arbitrary use of flat, decorative patterns of colour and
gold leaf. Klimt’s most successful works include
The Kiss (1908–09) and a series of portraits of fashionable Viennese matrons, such as
Fritza Riedler (1906) and
Adele Bloch-Bauer I (1907). In these works he treats the human figure without shadow and heightens the lush sensuality of skin by surrounding it with areas of flat, highly ornamental, brilliantly composed areas of decoration.
