Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter, and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. He was born in 1862 in Baumgarten, the Austrian Empire. His major works include paintings, murals, and sketches. His primary subject was the female body, and his works are frankly erotic, most especially his drawings in pencil. His art features elegant simplified design, elaborate and complex ornamentation and elements flattened into a single plane. Klimt did not write about himself or keep a diary. He said ìWhoever wants to know something about meÖ ought to look carefully at my pictures.î