Gustav Klimt – Mother and Child (detail)

Mother and Child (detail) is the right-hand part of Klimt’s The Three Ages of Woman of 1905: a young mother with closed eyes holds her sleeping child close, small flowers are woven into her long reddish-blond hair, and blue, white and gold round ornaments circle around them both. The whole canvas, 180 x 180 cm, belongs to the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. We paint the detail for you by hand in oil on canvas, in seven square sizes from 50 x 50 to 150 x 150 cm or made to measure, and before dispatch you receive a photograph of the finished work to approve.

Mother and Child (detail) – Gustav Klimt

What does the painting show?

Only the mother and the child are in this painting, seen close up. The young woman has her eyes closed and her head gently tilted, her long reddish-blond hair falls over her shoulder, and small flowers are woven into it. Against her bare upper body she holds her sleeping child with brown curls, who has laid its head on her chest. Both faces are still, as if they were breathing in the same rhythm.

Around them Klimt spreads ornament: blue, white and gold round shapes that recall flowers and pebbles, and a blue veil that runs across the canvas like a ribbon. On the right is a dark ground, against which the pale skin of mother and child shines even more. The nudity here is tender and motherly, nothing else – which is why the painting feels warm and calm on a wall, in a bedroom or a nursery too.

Which part of The Three Ages of Woman is this?

The whole painting, The Three Ages of Woman, is a square of 180 x 180 cm with three figures: on the left an old woman stands with her head bowed, and to her right the young mother holds the sleeping child. Our Mother and Child (detail) shows only that right-hand part, mother and child, and leaves out the old woman and most of the dark ground.

Why choose the detail? Because it is the most tender part of the work, and because without the old woman the painting no longer speaks of time passing, only of closeness and safety.

What does the painting mean?

In the whole painting the three ages of woman – childhood, motherhood and old age – stand side by side. Mother and child are its bright half: youth, love and a life that is only just beginning. The old woman on the left, who is missing from the detail, is a reminder of passing time; leave her out, and what remains is a moment of peace between a mother and her child.

That is why this can be a very personal choice: a gift for the birth of a baby, a painting for a mother or a grandmother, for a nursery or for the parents’ bedroom. The closed eyes of both give it silence, and the ornaments in gold and blue give it the festive warmth we know from Klimt’s golden period.

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

Klimt painted The Three Ages of Woman in 1905, in oil on canvas, at 180 x 180 cm. The same year it was shown in Berlin, at the exhibition of the Deutscher Künstlerbund. In 1911 it was shown at the international art exhibition in Rome, where it won a gold medal, after which the Italian state bought it for the national gallery of modern art.

It is still there: the whole painting hangs in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Rome, and the gallery’s story about it is linked in the table above. There is more on the painting and its history on Wikipedia.

Mother and Child among Klimt’s works

If you want the whole composition with the old woman on the left, choose The Three Ages of Woman; if only the mother and child speak to you, this detail is the right choice.

Klimt painted motherhood and childhood several more times. A pregnant woman appears in Hope I and in Hope II, and a small child wrapped in colourful blankets in Baby (Cradle).

How is our hand-painted Mother and Child made?

The painter starts by drawing the two faces and the hands, because the tenderness of the painting lies in small things: the closed eyelids, the way the mother’s hand rests, and the child’s cheek against her chest. The skin is then built up in thin layers, from cooler shadows to warm light tones, so that the faces take on the softness of the original. Hair, flowers and ornaments come later, with a fine brush.

The gold in the ornaments is painted in gold paint, applied by hand, circle by circle, next to the blue and white. The first photograph shows our copy in a slim dark floater frame with a gold edge on an easel in the studio, taken from the front. The second photograph shows it at an angle among frame samples, the third from the other side. In the fourth photograph you see the mother’s closed eyes and the child’s brown curls up close, with the weave of the canvas showing through the paint.

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 the brushstrokes on the skin or the shimmer of gold paint, which changes with the light in the room.

Which size for which wall?

Short answer: 90 x 90 or 100 x 100 cm above a sofa or bed, 60 x 60 or 80 x 80 cm in a nursery or above a chest of drawers, and 120 x 120 or 150 x 150 cm for a large wall.

There are seven square sizes: 50 x 50, 60 x 60, 80 x 80, 90 x 90, 100 x 100, 120 x 120 and 150 x 150 cm. Because the detail shows the faces larger than the whole painting does, mother and child read well even at 60 x 60 cm, and from 120 x 120 cm upwards the painting fills the wall. 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. Even a smaller size keeps the shimmer of the gold and the softness of the skin.

Hang it with the centre of the canvas about 150 cm above the floor, and 20 to 30 cm above a bed or a sofa.

Custom size, stretcher and frame

If none of the seven sizes fits your wall, we paint it to measure; the detail works best kept square. 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 hair and the ornaments run to the edge of the canvas, a slim dark floater frame with a gold edge suits it best, like the one in our photographs; a narrow gold moulding that repeats the gold of the ornaments also works well.

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 of Klimt’s Mother and Child?

The original is in Rome, in the Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna. Mother and Child is not a separate painting but the right-hand part of the large canvas The Three Ages of Woman, which measures 180 x 180 cm and is painted in oil. The gallery has kept it since the Italian state bought it after the international exhibition in Rome in 1911.

What is the meaning of Klimt’s Mother and Child?

It stands for closeness and safety between a mother and her child. In the whole painting, The Three Ages of Woman, the two represent youth and motherhood, while the old woman beside them stands for old age and passing time. In the detail only the mother and the sleeping child remain, so it speaks above all of tenderness, peace and the beginning of life.

Is Mother and Child part of The Three Ages of Woman?

Yes. Mother and Child is the right-hand part of Klimt’s The Three Ages of Woman of 1905. On the left side of the whole canvas stands an old woman with her head bowed, who does not appear in the detail. If you want all three figures, you can order the whole painting from us; if the mother and child speak to you, choose this detail.

When did Klimt paint Mother and Child?

Klimt painted the whole painting this detail comes from in 1905. The same year it was shown in Berlin, and in 1911 at the international exhibition in Rome, where it won a gold medal. It belongs to the years when Klimt often brought gold and rich ornament into his paintings, the period now called his golden period.

Is your Mother and Child painted by hand, with gold?

Yes. Every Mother and Child we send is a canvas painting made by hand in oil, from the first drawing of the faces to the last ornaments. The gold circles and accents are painted in gold paint, not gold leaf, so they shimmer and stay durable. Before dispatch we send you a photograph of the finished painting so you can approve it or ask for a correction.

Which size of Mother and Child should I choose?

For most walls 90 x 90 or 100 x 100 cm is right, above a sofa or a bed. For a nursery, a hallway or a smaller wall choose 60 x 60 or 80 x 80 cm, and for a large empty wall 120 x 120 or 150 x 150 cm. Every size is square, so the balance between mother and child always stays the same.

Which frame suits Mother and Child?

A slim dark floater frame with a gold edge suits it best, framing the canvas and picking up the gold of the ornaments. That is the frame you see in the first photograph, where our copy stands on an easel in the studio. A narrow gold moulding also works. You can compare every profile in our 3D application, and without a frame the canvas arrives stretched and ready to hang.

Is Mother and Child a good gift?

Yes, Mother and Child is a lovely gift for the birth of a baby, for Mother’s Day or for a grandmother, because it is about the love between a mother and her child. If you do not know the size of the wall, give a voucher, so the person receiving it chooses the size and frame. We paint to order, so order in good time: making one takes two to six weeks.

How do I care for Mother and Child in oil?

Oil paint and gold paint are 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 skin, the hair and the gold stay alive for many years.

• Subject: a young mother with closed eyes and her sleeping child among blue, white and gold ornaments – the right-hand part of The Three Ages of Woman.
• Original: 1905, oil on canvas, 180 x 180 cm (the whole painting), Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome.
• Ours: a Klimt reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas with gold paint, in seven square sizes or made to measure.
• Worth knowing: the detail leaves out the old woman from the left side of the original, and you approve a photograph before dispatch.