1. Artist : Gustav Klimt
Title : The Beethoven Frieze
Gallery: The Secession Building
Date: 1902
Reference: www.theartstory.org
This image is from the movement art nouveau. It started in 1890 and finished in
1902. During the start of this period, it started at the same time as the First
Franco-Dahomean War. This was a major war involving France and Dahomey.
France won this war and claimed Dahomey as a piece of their land.
There are a lot of lines in this piece. Some are straight but most of them are
natural and flowy lines. There are a lot of curvy lines in this piece and that is
because it is most common in this movement. In this movement there is a natural
feel to the paintings and that is due to the use of lines. I feel that the use of lines
in this piece gives us the illusion of naturalness. Also the straight lines in this
piece are really small, this is because this painting is supposed to represent
naturalness and I feel that straight lines are not natural; they don’t fit in with the
theme of it. The words art nouveau sounds natural and we would associate.
The colors in this piece are again very natural. Klimt has used browns, skin
tones and yellow. I think that he has used these colors because we all associate
these colors with being natural. For example we associate brown with being the
color of soil, which is natural. We associate the color yellow with the sun, which
is natural; also the skin colors used are natural. The shapes used in this piece are
very natural as they are the human body. Our shapes/ the shapes of our bodies
are natural.
I think that there are a couple of different textures in this piece. For example the
bodies I think create a smooth texture, the dark background I think is supposed
to be soft. Also the texture would be the whole thing depending what it has been
painted on. The only bit of tone on this painting is the different shades of brown
on the bottom half of the painting. I think that he has done this to create a bit of

2. shading and he also could of done this to make it more interesting. This is the
only piece of shading in this picture because the rest of it is block colors and
patterns. The only shape that has been used is the natural body shape. This
makes the whole natural feel to the photo because they are flowy lines and body
shapes.