Vienna at the turn of the twentieth century was a city in ferment – a bastion of the established order, a hotbed of radical politics, a crucible of intellectual and artistic revolution.

As capital of a multinational empire, residence of Europe’s premier monarchy, centre of an omnipresent bureaucracy and headquarters of a formidable army, Vienna projected an image of unshakeable power and respect for tradition. Lift not the painted veil: behind lay widespread discontent, a crumbling moral order and myriad cracks in the coherence of empire. With remarkable suddenness, there emerged from this complacent, decadent and artistically stagnant society a brilliant array of artists and intellectuals who were determined to break with the past and were prepared to risk affronting the establishment in doing so.

This was the city of Mahler, Schönberg, Schnitzler and Freud; and also of the protagonists of this tour, Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Otto Wagner, Adolf Loos, Kokoschka, Olbrich, Hoffmann and other artists who were associated with the 1897 ‘secession’ from the Künstlerhaus, the conservative institution which hitherto had a virtual monopoly on exhibition space in Vienna.

In the 1890s, Art Nouveau in its multifarious manifestations spread like wildfire around Europe, and beyond. In the realm of architecture and ornamentation the Viennese variant was more measured than elsewhere and more classical. In the first years of the new century, applied ornament retreated further to expose pure form and rational design. Here are the roots of modernism which, in turn, became the dominant orthodoxy of the twentieth century.

By contrast, the revolution in painting and the graphic arts had little international influence but resulted in works which were exceptionally luxuriant and expressive. Klimt (1862–1912) was the leading exponent of the Viennese Secession. This tour is timed to include the maximum number of the exhibitions and displays of permanent holdings of his work which will be held to commemorate his centenary. Over the last three decades or so the Viennese Secessionists have gained tremendously in popularity; the highest price ever paid for a painting at auction, in 2006, was for a painting by Klimt.

Read itinerary