The Tree of Life

The Tree of Life is the central panel of the cartoon designs Klimt made for the dining room frieze of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, the most complete realisation of the Gesamtkunstwerk ideal in early twentieth-century decorative art. The Stoclet house was commissioned by the Belgian millionaire Adolphe Stoclet from the Viennese architect Josef Hoffmann and completed in 1911; the interior was a total artistic environment involving the Wiener Werkstätte and including Klimt's frieze as its centrepiece. Klimt prepared the cartoons — full-scale designs on paper and cardboard — between approximately 1905 and 1909, and the final frieze was executed in precious materials including marble, enamel, coral, and gold by Werkstätte craftsmen. The Tree of Life in the central panel is a spiralling, fantastical tree covered in circular ornaments and inhabited by birds, its branches reaching across the full width of the wall. The design synthesises Egyptian hieroglyphic decoration, Byzantine mosaic conventions, Japanese decorative patterns, and Celtic spiral ornament into a purely two-dimensional surface with no pictorial depth — an abstract decorative system rather than a representational image. It is the closest Klimt came to pure ornamental abstraction.

The cartoon is executed in opaque and wash media on cardboard, using a combination of drawn lines and applied colour to simulate the precious material effects of the final mosaic execution. Spiral forms, geometric fills, and foliate patterns are rendered with measured precision suggesting detailed collaboration with Werkstätte craftsmen.