Gustav Klimt was not a Contender sailor, nevertheless he liked Malcesine a lot. It happened in 1913 when the, already really famous, Austrian painter decided to change his vacation habits. Instead than passing his usual holidays in Attersee, in the Austrian Alps, he went to Lake Garda, in Italy. During his three month staying (he was based in Tremosine, at the Morandi Hotel) he created three famous paintings: “Malcesine am Gardasee“, “Kirche in Cassone” (a small village near Malcesine) and “Italienische Gartenlandschaft” (Italian garden landscape).
Even if Tremosine was on opposite side of the lake (one on the west, the other on east) he managed to observe Malcesine from far away using a telescope, maybe on a boat, as he used to do in Austria: this would explain the special “flat” effect you see the in the “Malcesine” and “Cassone” paintings. While the second is still conserved (it was stolen in 1938 but then resurfaced and sold by Sotheby’s for nearly 27 million pounds) the first has desappeared and its fate is covered by mistery. There most convincing explanation is that the painting was destroyed during the fire the Immerdorf castle in Vienna in 1945.
Malcesine am Gardasee is considered a singular and important work in Klimt artistic production. According to “gustav-klimt.com” website, the characteristic and peculiar distinction of this “landscape is the transformed handling of subject-matter, panorama, lighting, and form. It is a wonderful light, expansive work unlike the usual claustrophobic style of his typically intense Austrian scenes. The atmosphere is of life and frivolity rather than the somber, emotionally charged visions of home.
Some critics point to Cubism as the agent of change. Klimt came into contact with the movement during recent trips to Paris where works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were on display. Schiele’s own landscapes during this period certainly explore a more Cubist approach and both artists probably discussed the dynamic implications of this new formal esthetic. But in Klimt’s case, comparison with Cubism is stretching a point. Here its influence was only experimental and conducted in a casual, limited fashion”.
