Gustav Klimt – Farm Garden with Crucifix

Farm Garden with Crucifix is Klimt’s square landscape of 1911–1912: a tall wooden wayside crucifix with a small pointed roof stands in the middle of a dense garden full of yellow, orange, red, white and violet flowers, slim trees line up behind it, and an old house hides at the left. The original, 110 x 110 cm, burned in May 1945 at Schloss Immendorf. We paint it for you by hand in oil on canvas after the surviving colour reproduction, in eight square sizes from 60 x 60 to 150 x 150 cm or made to measure, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve.

Farm Garden with Crucifix – Gustav Klimt

What does the painting show?

In the centre of the painting stands a tall wooden crucifix, the kind you see beside country roads in Austria, with a small pointed roof to keep off the rain. Around it grows a dense garden: yellow, orange, red, white and violet flowers fill almost the whole lower half of the canvas, so the cross seems to grow straight out of the flowers.

Behind the garden stands a row of slim trees with thick foliage, and among them, on the left, an old house hides, only half visible. There is no sky, so your eye stays in the garden. Klimt painted everything in small dabs of colour that repeat across the canvas, which is why it looks like a bright carpet with the quiet upright line of the cross in the middle.

What happened to the original?

The original no longer exists. It belonged to the collection of August and Serena Lederer, Viennese collectors of Klimt’s work, and was taken from them during the war. With other works of art it was stored at Schloss Immendorf in Lower Austria. When the retreating German army set fire to the castle on 8 May 1945, this painting burned too.

That is why we know it only from the surviving colour reproduction. Klimt’s lost and destroyed works are also recorded in the list of Klimt’s paintings. Our copy is painted after that reproduction, so a subject you can no longer see in any museum can hang on a wall again.

What does the painting mean?

In the Austrian countryside, crosses by the roadside and in gardens are common; people stopped beside them to pray or simply to greet. Klimt does not put the cross forward like a sermon; he almost hides it among the flowers. Many people see in it a calm coexistence of faith and nature, a still point in the middle of summer bloom.

So the painting never feels heavy or sad. It is above all a garden in high summer, full of colour, with an upright cross that gives the composition its backbone. It suits a dining room, a bedroom or a study, wherever you want some colour and some calm at once.

When did Klimt paint Farm Garden with Crucifix?

Klimt painted it in 1911–1912, in oil on canvas, in the square 110 x 110 cm format he liked for his summer landscapes. A square favours neither height nor width, so the cross stands calmly and the flowers spread evenly across the whole surface.

There is more on the painter, his life and his work on Wikipedia.

Farm Garden with Crucifix among Klimt’s works

Our gallery holds several of Klimt’s gardens. Closest to this one is a garden full of flowers and tall yellow blooms, Farm Garden with Sunflowers. Even denser flowers fill Flower Garden, and a single tall plant stands in Sunflower. This garden shares its fate with Malcesine on Lake Garda, also lost in the Immendorf fire.

Which one should you choose? Choose Farm Garden with Crucifix if you like a garden with one upright point that calms the bright flowers; the sunflower garden is sunnier and more yellow, and Flower Garden is almost all blossom. Two gardens in the same size also hang well side by side.

How is our hand-painted Farm Garden with Crucifix made?

The painter first draws the cross with its roof, the tree trunks and the outline of the house, because these uprights carry the whole composition. Then come thin layers of the darker greens of the garden and the treetops, and over them lighter leaves. The flowers come last: hundreds of round dabs of yellow, orange, red, white and violet, laid on so thickly that the paint stands up from the canvas.

The photographs show our copy of this painting. In the first photograph it stands in a gold frame on an easel in our studio among other paintings, taken from the front. The second photograph shows the same painting at an angle. In the third photograph you see close up the corner of the frame, the cross with its little roof and the tree trunks. The fourth photograph shows the flowers close up: round dabs of orange, red, pink, white and violet in thick paint. The video at the top of the page shows the painting in motion too.

Every painting is a hand-painted copy made for your order, so no two are ever quite the same. A printed oil painting reproduction cannot show those raised strokes on the flowers.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 100 x 100 or 110 x 110 cm above a sofa or bed, 70 x 70 or 80 x 80 cm above a chest of drawers or in a smaller room, and 120 x 120 or 150 x 150 cm for a large wall. The 110 x 110 cm size is exactly the size of the original.

There are eight square sizes: 60 x 60, 70 x 70, 80 x 80, 90 x 90, 100 x 100, 110 x 110, 120 x 120 and 150 x 150 cm. The smallest suit a hallway or the wall above a desk, the middle ones go above furniture, and the largest belong on a big empty wall. Because the flowers repeat across the whole canvas, even a smaller size keeps its pattern. A painting for the living room should take up about two thirds of the width of the furniture below it; above a sofa 150 cm wide, that is 100 x 100 cm.

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, and 20 to 30 cm above a sofa or a headboard. The warm flower colours sit well with wood, white walls and plants in the room.

Custom size, stretcher and frame

If none of the eight sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure; it works best kept square, like the original. Send us the width and height you want and we will quote a price and a lead time. Every painting we make is stretched over a wooden stretcher and ready to hang.

For the moulding, use our 3D application: it shows every one of our frame profiles on this subject, so you can compare gold, silver, black, white and natural wood before deciding – the application is for choosing the frame only. If you would like to see how the painting will look on your own wall, that is our separate room placement service. This garden looks good in a warm gold profile like the one in the first photograph, because it picks up the yellow and orange flowers.

Delivery and guarantee

Every painting is made to order in our studio in Slovenia, so allow 15 to 45 days depending on the size you choose. We ship it stretched and protected for transport, framed if you chose a frame, across the EU with no customs. Before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve; if anything is not right, we correct it while the canvas is still in our workshop. Our returns policy applies to every order.

If it is a present and you do not know the right size, there is a wall art voucher. Every other Klimt work we paint is in the Gustav Klimt gallery, and there is more on the painter in our article ten interesting facts about Gustav Klimt.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Klimt’s Farm Garden with Crucifix today?

The original no longer exists; it burned. It belonged to the collection of August and Serena Lederer, was taken from them and stored at Schloss Immendorf in Lower Austria. It burned there on 8 May 1945, when the retreating German army set the castle on fire. A colour reproduction survives, and we paint our copy after it.

What does Klimt’s garden with a crucifix show?

It shows a tall wooden crucifix with a small pointed roof in the middle of a dense country garden. Yellow, orange, red, white and violet flowers bloom all around it, slim trees stand behind, and an old house hides at the left. There is no sky, so the painting draws you right into the garden, as if you were standing among the flowers.

When was the crucifix garden painted?

Klimt painted it in 1911–1912, in oil on canvas, in the square 110 x 110 cm format. It is the same format he used for most of his summer landscapes. Our 110 x 110 cm size is therefore exactly the size of the original, and smaller and larger square sizes are available too.

What do you paint the lost crucifix garden from?

We paint our copy after the surviving colour reproduction of the original, because the canvas itself no longer exists. The painter follows the layout of the cross, the trees and the house and the colours of the flowers as the reproduction shows them. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting, so you can compare and approve it or ask for a correction.

Is your Farm Garden with Crucifix really painted by hand?

Yes. Every garden we send is a canvas painting made by hand in oil, from the first drawing of the cross to the last flower. That is why the strokes on the flowers can be seen and felt, as the fourth photograph shows. The video at the top of the page shows the painting from several angles before you decide.

Which frame suits the crucifix painting?

A warm gold frame suits it best, like the one in the first photograph, where our copy stands on an easel in the studio. Gold picks up the yellow and orange flowers and brings out the light in the garden. Natural wood also works well. You can compare every profile in our 3D application, and without a frame the canvas arrives stretched and ready to hang.

Which room suits the crucifix and flowers painting?

It looks best in a bright, quiet room: a dining room, a bedroom, a study or the hallway of a house. The warm flower colours sit well with wood and white walls, and the upright cross gives the wall a sense of calm. Because the subject is quiet and unobtrusive, it also suits a country house or holiday home.

Is the crucifix painting a good gift?

Yes, this cross among flowers is a lovely gift for anyone who loves the countryside, gardens or Klimt’s landscapes, for example for a new home or an anniversary. If you do not know the size of the wall, a voucher is the better present, since the person receiving it chooses the size and frame. We paint to order, so order in good time.

How do I care for the crucifix painting in oil?

Oil paint is durable, so care is simple. Hang the painting away from direct sun and radiators, and dust it now and then with a soft, dry cloth or brush, without water or cleaning products. The canvas is stretched over a wooden stretcher, so do not lean it against sharp edges. That way the colours of the flowers stay bright for many years.

• Subject: a tall wooden wayside crucifix with a small roof in the middle of a dense garden of bright flowers in front of a row of slim trees.
• Original: 1911–1912, oil on canvas, 110 x 110 cm, burned in 1945 at Schloss Immendorf.
• Ours: a Klimt reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas after the surviving colour reproduction, in eight square sizes or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: the 110 x 110 cm size is the size of the original, and you approve a photograph before dispatch.