Description
On Lake Attersee is the painting with which Gustav Klimt began his love of the lake in Upper Austria: in the summer of 1900, on his first stay there, he filled an almost square canvas with nothing but water – turquoise and silver-grey ripples – and let only a dark wooded island appear in the upper right corner. The original hangs in the Leopold Museum in Vienna. We paint it by hand in oil on canvas, in eight square sizes from 60 x 60 to 150 x 150 cm or to your own measurement, and you approve a photograph of the finished painting before we ship it.
| Title: | On Lake Attersee |
| Other titles: | Am Attersee · Sul lago Attersee · Ob jezeru Attersee |
| Painter: | Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) |
| Year painted: | 1900 |
| Original size: | 80.2 cm x 80.2 cm |
| Original technique: | Oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | Vienna Secession, landscape |
| Located at: | Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. 4148) |
| Our reproduction: | Hand-painted oil on canvas, eight square sizes or made to measure |
On Lake Attersee – Gustav Klimt
What does the painting show?
Almost the whole square is water. Thousands of short horizontal strokes in turquoise, sea green and silver-grey lie next to each other, so that the surface of the lake seems to move gently in front of you. Towards the top the water grows lighter and paler, as if the light of a hazy summer day were falling on it.
Only at the very top does the lake end: a narrow, misty band of grey-blue hills and sky closes the view. In the upper right corner a dark green wooded island pushes into the view – it is Litzlberg Island. There is no boat, no swimmer, no shore in the foreground. The painting is pure lake, and that is exactly why people love it: it is quiet, cool and endlessly calm.
Klimt’s first summer at the Attersee
The Attersee in Upper Austria became Klimt’s summer place for many years; he spent the warm months there with the Flöge family, the family of Emilie Flöge. This painting comes from the very beginning: Klimt painted it during his first stay at the lake, in the summer of 1900.
So On Lake Attersee is, in a way, the first page of a long story. Many of the landscapes for which Klimt is loved today – the flower gardens, the orchards, the forests – grew out of those summers. Here he simply looked at the water and decided that it was enough to fill a whole canvas.
Why does the water fill the whole square?
Because Klimt wanted the lake itself to be the subject, not a view of it. A landscape painter of his time would usually show a shore, a horizon and a wide sky. Klimt did the opposite: he moved so close that the water covers almost all of the canvas and the horizon is pushed to the very top edge. The Leopold Museum calls it a radical composition.
The effect is close to an abstract pattern, yet it is completely natural – you still feel the depth of the lake and the movement of the surface. When the painting was first shown, at the tenth exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1901, critics were enthusiastic. Ludwig Hevesi described it as a frame full of lake water, and that is still the best way to put it.
Where is the original?
The original, painted in oil on canvas and measuring 80.2 cm square, is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna, where it has the inventory number 4148 and has belonged to the museum’s private foundation since 1994. Klimt signed it in the lower left corner, GUSTAV KLIMT. A link to the museum’s record is in the table above.
If you plan to see it in Vienna, check the museum’s website before you go, because paintings are sometimes moved or lent. At home, our hand-painted version lets you live with the lake every day – painted for you, by hand, in the size you choose, never printed.
On Lake Attersee among Klimt’s landscapes
The other Attersee summers are well represented in our gallery. Poppy Field is a meadow full of red poppies; Forest of Beech Trees is a dense rhythm of slim trunks; Apple Tree I shows a tree heavy with red apples; and Farm Garden with Sunflowers sets tall sunflowers in a sea of blossoms. The same view of the lake appears in Island in Lake Attersee, painted a year or two later: choose On Lake Attersee for almost pure water, the island version if you want a dark island to anchor the picture.
Next to these, On Lake Attersee is the coolest and calmest: blue and green instead of red and yellow, water instead of flowers. Choose it for a bedroom, a bathroom or a quiet reading corner; if you want more colour and warmth, one of the garden paintings may suit you better. Two of them side by side, the lake and a garden, make a lovely summer pair. More about Klimt’s life is on the English Wikipedia page on Klimt.
How do we paint On Lake Attersee by hand?
It looks simple, but it is not. The painter first places the island in the upper right corner and the band of hills at the top, because those two shapes hold the whole composition. Then the lake goes on in thin layers, from the deeper green-blue at the bottom to the paler, silvery tones at the top.
The real work is the surface: hundreds of short horizontal strokes, turquoise beside grey beside green, until the water seems to shimmer and move. An oil painting reproduction made by a printer cannot do this – the strokes become flat dots. Painted by hand, every stroke has its own body and catches the light from a window. Each of our paintings is a hand-painted copy made only for your order, so the ripples on your canvas are your own.
There is no gold in the original, and none in ours: only oil colours on canvas.
Which size for which wall?
The short answer: 80 x 80 cm is about the size of the original and suits most walls. Go smaller, 60 x 60 or 70 x 70 cm, for a hallway, a bathroom or beside a window; choose 90 x 90 or 100 x 100 cm above a bed or a sideboard; and 110 x 110, 120 x 120 or 150 x 150 cm for a large wall above a sofa or in an open living space.
Every size is square, like Klimt’s canvas, so the island stays exactly where he put it. Because the subject is calm and has no small details, the painting also works very large: a 150 x 150 cm lake turns a whole wall into water. As a painting for the living room, 110 x 110 or 120 x 120 cm above a three-seat sofa gives a cool, restful focal point.
Hang the centre of the canvas at about eye level, 150 to 160 cm from the floor. Above furniture, keep a gap of 20 to 30 cm, and aim for a width of roughly two thirds of the sofa or sideboard below.
Custom size, stretcher and frame
Need a different size? We paint it to measure; a square or nearly square format keeps the lake and the island in balance. Tell us the width and height and we will send you the price and delivery time. Each painting leaves our studio stretched on a wooden stretcher frame, ready to hang.
To choose the frame, open our 3D application: it lets you try every one of our frame profiles on this painting – gold, silver, black, white or natural wood – and it is meant only for the frame choice. To see the painting on your own wall, ask for our separate room placement service. A silver or white frame echoes the silvery water; a natural wood frame makes it feel warmer.
Delivery and guarantee
We paint every order in our studio in Slovenia, which takes 15 to 45 days depending on the size. The painting travels stretched and well protected, framed if you ordered a frame, and within the EU there are no customs. You see it before it leaves: we send you a photograph of the finished canvas for approval and correct anything you are not happy with. Every order is covered by our returns policy.
Buying it as a present and unsure about the size? Our gift voucher lets the recipient decide. Find more of Klimt’s work in the Gustav Klimt gallery, and read 10 interesting facts about Gustav Klimt for more about the painter.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original On Lake Attersee by Klimt?
The original is in the Leopold Museum in Vienna, inventory number 4148. It has belonged to the museum’s private foundation since 1994. Painted in oil on canvas, it measures 80.2 cm square, close to our 80 x 80 cm size. If you plan a visit, check the museum’s website first, because paintings are sometimes moved or lent.
When did Klimt paint On Lake Attersee?
Klimt painted it in the summer of 1900, during his first stay at the Attersee in Upper Austria. It is one of the earliest of the many landscapes he painted at the lake over the following summers, and it was first shown to the public at the tenth exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1901.
What does Klimt’s On Lake Attersee show?
It shows almost nothing but water: turquoise, green and silver-grey ripples fill nearly the whole square, growing lighter towards the top. A misty band of hills and sky closes the view at the top, and a dark green wooded island appears in the upper right corner. There are no people, boats or shore.
Which island can you see in On Lake Attersee?
The dark wooded island in the upper right corner is Litzlberg Island, which lies in the Attersee. Only its shoreline enters the painting, as if by chance, while everything else is water. That small dark shape is important: it gives the eye a fixed point and shows how large and open the lake is.
What did critics say about On Lake Attersee?
They were enthusiastic. When the painting was shown at the tenth Secession exhibition in Vienna in 1901, critics raved about it. Ludwig Hevesi described it as a frame full of lake water. What surprised them was the radical idea of filling almost the entire canvas with the surface of the lake.
Is there gold in On Lake Attersee?
No, there is no gold in this painting. It belongs to Klimt’s landscapes, which he painted in natural colours, and its shimmer comes from the short strokes of turquoise, green and silver-grey, not from metal. Our version is therefore painted with oil colours only, without any gold paint, just like the original.
Which size of On Lake Attersee suits my wall?
The 80 x 80 cm size is about as big as the original and suits most walls. For a hallway or bathroom choose 60 x 60 or 70 x 70 cm, above a bed 90 x 90 or 100 x 100 cm, and for a large wall above a sofa 110 x 110, 120 x 120 or 150 x 150 cm.
Which room suits On Lake Attersee?
It is ideal for a bedroom, a bathroom, a reading corner or a living room where you want calm. As a canvas painting in cool turquoise and grey it pairs beautifully with white, light grey or blue walls, pale wood and linen. People who love lakes, the sea or sailing often choose it because it feels like looking at the water.
Is On Lake Attersee a good gift?
Yes, especially for someone who loves water, holidays at a lake or a calm, modern look. It is a lesser-known Klimt with no gold, which makes it a personal choice rather than an obvious one. If you are unsure of the size, 80 x 80 cm fits most homes, or give a voucher.
- Subject: the surface of Lake Attersee in turquoise and silver-grey ripples, a misty band of hills at the top and Litzlberg Island in the upper right corner.
- Original: 1900, oil on canvas, 80.2 x 80.2 cm, Leopold Museum, Vienna (inv. 4148).
- Our version: a Klimt reproduction painted by hand in oil on canvas, in eight square sizes or made to measure.
- Good to know: you approve a photograph of the finished painting before it is shipped.
