After the Rain

After the Rain (1898) is one of Klimt's earliest pure landscapes, and one of the first signs that he was developing a sustained practice in the genre independent of his figurative and allegorical work. The farmyard setting — chickens, wet ground, vernacular architecture — is a radical departure from the symbolic grandeur of his Secession allegorical works, demonstrating the range Klimt was exploring in the founding year of the movement. The subject resembles contemporary naturalist landscape painting — the plein-air tradition of French and Scandinavian artists shown at the Secession exhibitions — but Klimt's treatment anticipates his later all-over compositional approach by filling the canvas surface with the irregular textures of a rain-soaked farmyard. The Belvedere's holding places this modest subject alongside The Kiss and other canonical Klimt works, revealing how diverse his production was even during the Gold Style years. The work is sometimes read as a counterpoint to the grand allegorical ambitions of the Vienna University ceiling paintings, which were causing public controversy in the same years.

Oil on canvas with an unusually horizontal and low-key composition for Klimt — a farmyard seen at close range, without the sky. Surface textures of wet mud, straw, and the iridescent feathers of chickens are rendered with close observational attention. The restricted, overcast palette is far from the gilded brilliance of his symbolic works.