Music & Art: Klimt & Beethoven: Artistic Rebellion in Fin de Siècle Vienna

This lecture explores the historical context of Gustav Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze.

Just as Klimt and his fellow artists of the Vienna Seccession were seeking freedom from repressive institutions, other cultural turning points were emerging: Freud’s psychoanalysis, Wittgenstein’s linguistic philosophies and Mahler’s emotive symphonies. Their city, Vienna, was a hotbed of individual expression and introspection and Beethoven was the era’s historical hero. In particular, the composer’s late period (1812-1827) was marked by visionary introspection, and resonated with the artists and thinkers of late 19th-century Vienna. By examining Klimt’s Beethoven Frieze and the 1902 exhibition it was made for, we will come to understand Beethoven’s impact at this pivotal time in European history.

This lecture will serve as an introduction to the topic, and no prior knowledge is necessary to join us!

This lecture is part of the public programming for our new exhibition, A Grand Chorus: The Power of Music.

Lecturer: Sarah Jaffray

This lecture will last an hour. Tickets are available to watch the lecture either ONLINE or IN-PERSON at the Foundling Museum; in-person tickets include Museum entry. The online recording will be available to watch for 1 month.

Other lectures in this series:

• 24/10/25 Music and the German Expressionists, with Ailsa McTernan
• 05/12/25 Sounding Presence: John Blanke and the Power of Music, with Michael Ohajuru
• 16/01/26 The Symbolism of Music in Dutch Genre Painting, with Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff

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