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c. 1880–1910
Symbolism sought to express spiritual and psychological states through allegory and evocative imagery. Klimt’s golden surfaces, Munch’s existential figures, and Ensor’s masked crowds created an art of inner life.
Artists & Works
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt led the Vienna Secession and created some of the most opulent paintings in Western art. His gold-leaf surfaces and erotic allegories in works like The Kiss made him both celebrated and scandalous across Europe.
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Ferdinand Keller
Ferdinand Keller led the Karlsruhe Academy for over three decades while producing haunting Symbolist visions influenced by Arnold Böcklin, alongside grand history paintings for German royalty. His atmospheric, dreamlike landscapes bridge academic history painting and the darker currents of European Symbolism.
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Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon spent his early career in a private world of charcoal and lithograph ‘noirs’ — floating eyes, spiders, and half-human creatures drawn from dreams rather than observation. In later life he turned to radiant pastel and oil, filling his canvases with flowers and mythic figures that made him a central figure of Symbolism.
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