Boxed Set of 20 Note Cards of Women: Portraits by Gustav Klimt

Set of 20 assorted 5" x 7" note cards (5 each of 4 paintings) plus envelopes in a decorative card box featuring four quietly sensual portraits of women by the Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862-1918).

• Blank inside for your own message
• Printed on recycled paper with soy-based inks
• Inside the box is an insert with a biography about Gustav Klimt

At the turn of the twentieth century, Austrian society was in a state of turbulent change. A culture of prudishness and moral rectitude was collapsing, and a new order was being born. The art world saw a clash between the bland, rigid establishment style and the emerging power, eroticism, and symbolism of works by the Vienna Secession group, cofounded by Gustav Klimt that broke with the rulebound Vienna Academy and organized its own exhibitions. Thus in 1899 one of Klimt's paintings was called "the most beautiful picture ever painted by an Austrian," while a year later Klimt was excoriated for his new style.