Farm Garden with Crucifix

This painting which Klimt designed in a square format in the years 1911-1912 but which was destroyed at the end of World War II in 1945, can be classified as Art Nouveau (Jugendstil). The viewer who, confused by the title, expects the typical peasant’s garden with neatly aligned flower beds, fruit trees and vegetable patches, will be sorely disappointed by Klimt’s creation.

Klimt`s peasant garden is a completely overgrown and almost savage small copse that is populated by scraggy and crooked trees that have been planted far to close to each other thus permitting only a small fraction of daylight to fall in the garden. The ground is abundantly covered with summer wildflowers. The only straight lines in the painting belong to the wooden façade of a barely visible, seemingly deserted cottage in the upper left corner that seems to have once been the garden’s shed.

The viewer’s eye is quickly caught by the central piece of the painting: a cross, or rather a crucifix that is protected by a small wooden shrine. Painted in a rusty brown and a spotty midnight green it covers the figure of Christ beneath it. The rusty brown back board, which is not visible, is completely covered with blooming, yellow roses, the growth of which covers everything except the two figures. Beneath the feet of the rather conventionally painted Christ, in the midst of all the wild flowers, the mourning figure of Mary stands with her hands folded and her head covered with a blue cloth.

Where may Klimt have found this wild garden that presumably once belonged to a very pious family? Or is it the product of his rich imagination? Either way, this painting is able to enthrall the observant beholder for a long time.