Gustav Klimt – Farm Garden with Sunflowers

Farm Garden with Sunflowers is Klimt’s square painting of 1907: three tall sunflowers with dark centres and rings of yellow petals stand upright in the middle of a dense garden, and around them a carpet of small red, pink, white, blue and violet flowers spreads to every edge. The original, 110 x 110 cm, hangs in the Upper Belvedere in Vienna. We paint it for you by hand in oil on canvas, 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 Sunflowers – Gustav Klimt

What does the painting show?

We are looking at a piece of a country garden from close up. In the middle and on the right stand three tall sunflowers, each with a dark, almost black centre and a ring of yellow petals. Their big leaves are heart-shaped and dark green and hang along the stems like heavy cloth. The sunflowers are the tallest plants in the painting and watch over everything else like a quiet group of friends.

Around them and in front of them lies a thick carpet of small round flowers: red, pink, white, blue and violet. Between them the green of the leaves keeps coming back, so the canvas is full of plants from edge to edge. There is no sky and no horizon, so the painting feels like a look straight into the garden itself, as if you were leaning over the fence.

Why is there no sky in the painting?

Klimt cropped the subject so that the garden fills the whole square. He is said to have used a small square viewfinder made of cardboard for his landscapes, to find exactly the right section of a scene. That leaves no room for sky or horizon: the eye has nowhere to escape, it stays among the flowers and returns to the three sunflowers.

This is exactly why it works so well on a wall. With no depth into the distance, the canvas becomes almost a pattern, a mosaic of dots of colour that you can enjoy from near and far. From a distance you see the three sunflowers and the mass of green; close up, the single flowers, painted in small round dabs.

What does the painting mean?

Farm Garden with Sunflowers tells no story. It is a painting of summer plenty: a garden where everything is in bloom at once, and sunflowers as the sign of high summer. Many people see almost human figures in the three tall flowers, as if they stood side by side and looked back at us. In Klimt, whom most people know for his golden portraits of women and for The Kiss, this is the other side – the painter who spent his summers painting nature.

That makes it a good choice for a room you want to feel warm and lively: a living room, a kitchen, a dining room or a hallway that needs colour. The yellow sunflowers bring light to the wall, the bright flowers bring cheer, and the dense green calms it all down again.

Where does the painting come from and where is it now?

Klimt painted it in 1907, in oil on canvas, in the square size of 110 x 110 cm, and signed it lower left GUSTAV / KLIMT. According to the Belvedere, he found the farm garden motif during his summer stay on the shore of the Attersee in Upper Austria. Besides the sunflowers, dahlias, marigolds, asters and phlox grow in it.

Today the original belongs to the Belvedere and hangs in the Upper Belvedere in Vienna, under inventory number 3685. The collection record is linked in the table above, and there is more on the painter and his work on Wikipedia.

Farm Garden with Sunflowers among Klimt’s works

If you like Klimt’s flowers, you can follow them with us in several versions. A single tall sunflower of the same summer is the subject of Sunflower. A garden full of bright flowers is also shown in Flower Garden, and a meadow in bloom under trees in Blooming Meadow. A round crown of red apples above a flowering meadow is in Apple Tree I.

Choose Farm Garden with Sunflowers if you want flowers and sunflowers together on one canvas: three tall blooms that give the painting a face and a carpet of small flowers that gives it colour. Among our Klimt landscapes it is one of the most summery, so it suits a room that lacks light.

How is our hand-painted Farm Garden made?

The painter starts by drawing the three sunflowers, because their placing carries the whole painting: the height of the stems and the spacing of the blooms have to follow the original. Then come thin layers of the dark green ground from which the leaves grow, and then the heart-shaped sunflower leaves, each with its own shades. The centres are painted dark, almost black, and the petals around them in several yellows, so that they gain volume.

The small flowers come last: hundreds of round dabs of red, pink, white, blue and violet, set down one after another. This is the longest part of the work, because these flowers are what make the garden alive and rich. 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 small raised dabs that catch the light in a room.

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 in the Belvedere.

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, a kitchen or the wall above a desk, the middle ones go above furniture, and the largest belong on a big empty wall that the garden fills from edge to edge. Because the small flowers repeat across the whole canvas, even a smaller size keeps its richness. 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.

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. Because the garden runs to the edge of the canvas, a slim natural-wood floater frame or a dark profile that deepens the green suits it well; a warm gold profile brings out the yellow sunflowers.

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 the original Farm Garden with Sunflowers?

The original is in Vienna, in the collection of the Belvedere, and hangs in the Upper Belvedere under inventory number 3685. The canvas measures 110 x 110 cm and is painted in oil. If you have seen it in Vienna and want it at home, our 110 x 110 cm size is exactly as large as the original, and smaller sizes go down to 60 x 60 cm.

What does Klimt’s Farm Garden with Sunflowers show?

It shows a piece of a country garden from close up: three tall sunflowers with dark centres and yellow petals stand among heart-shaped green leaves, surrounded by a thick carpet of small red, pink, white, blue and violet flowers. There is no sky and no horizon, so the garden fills the whole square. There are no people, only plants and flowers.

Which flowers grow in Klimt’s Farm Garden?

Besides the three sunflowers, the Belvedere names dahlias, marigolds, asters and phlox in the painting. Klimt painted them as small round dots of red, pink, white, blue and violet, with green leaves returning between them again and again. He saw a farm garden like this in summer at the Attersee, where he also found the motif.

When was Farm Garden with Sunflowers painted?

It was painted in 1907. Klimt worked in oil on a square canvas of 110 x 110 cm and signed it lower left GUSTAV / KLIMT. He found the motif during a summer stay at the Attersee. His painting of a single sunflower dates from the same time, and you will find it with us under the title Sunflower.

Is your Farm Garden with Sunflowers really painted by hand?

Yes. Every sunflower garden we send is a canvas painting made by hand in oil, from the first drawing of the three sunflowers to the last small flower. That is why the strokes can be seen and felt, especially on the flowers in the foreground. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting so you can approve it or ask for a correction.

Which size of Farm Garden with Sunflowers matches the original?

The 110 x 110 cm size matches the original, because Klimt painted the garden on a square canvas of exactly those dimensions. If you have less space, there are smaller sizes down to 60 x 60 cm, and for a large wall 120 x 120 and 150 x 150 cm. Every size is square, so the balance between sunflowers and flowers never changes.

Which frame suits Farm Garden with Sunflowers?

Because the garden runs to the edge, a slim floater frame suits it best, framing the canvas without hiding the flowers at the edge. Natural wood brings out its country character, a dark profile deepens the green, and a warm gold lifts the yellow sunflowers. You can compare every profile in our 3D application, and without a frame the canvas arrives stretched and ready to hang.

Which room suits Farm Garden with Sunflowers?

It looks best in a warm, lively room: in the living room above the sofa, in a kitchen, a dining room or a hallway that needs colour. Its yellows and greens sit well with wood, linen and house plants. With no figures in it, it never dominates a room, and its colours lift a darker wall or a room with little daylight.

Is Farm Garden with Sunflowers a good gift?

Yes, this garden makes a welcome gift because it is cheerful, colourful and free of personal subjects, so it suits almost any home, especially for people who love gardens and flowers. 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.

• Subject: three tall sunflowers among heart-shaped leaves and a thick carpet of small bright flowers, with no sky.
• Original: 1907, oil on canvas, 110 x 110 cm, Belvedere, Vienna (inv. 3685).
• Ours: a Klimt reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, 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.