Left: Gustav Klimt. The Sunflower (detail). 1907. Right: Egon Schiele. Sunflower II. 1909. FLOWERS FOR YOU! A Valentine’s Day Gift from Klimt & Schiele For Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele (as for Vincent van Gogh, whose sunflower pictures were...

Left: Gustav Klimt. The Sunflower (detail). 1907.
Right: Egon Schiele. Sunflower II. 1909.

FLOWERS FOR YOU!
A Valentine’s Day Gift from Klimt & Schiele

For Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele (as for Vincent van Gogh, whose sunflower pictures were exhibited in Vienna in 1903 and 1906), the sun was a symbol for the life force, and the flower that emulated it in name as well as in shape was a natural vessel for strong allegorical sentiment.

The poet Peter Altenberg observed that Klimt handled landscapes as though they were women; Schiele’s landscapes, too, were imbued with human qualities. “Above all I observe the physical movements of mountains, water, trees, and flowers,” Schiele wrote in a 1913 letter. “Everywhere one is reminded of similar movements in human bodies, of similar manifestations of joy and suffering in plants.”

While Klimt’s Sunflower is bursting with life, Schiele’s appears on the verge of decay. For Schiele, death was inseparable from life, a fact he accepted with philosophical equanimity rather than morbidity. “Everything is living dead,” he once said.

This is the final day to vote for your Valentine! Will it be Klimt or Schiele? Cast your vote here.