Mohnfeld

Every summer Klimt left Vienna for the Attersee, a long lake in the Salzkammergut, and painted landscapes for himself between portrait commissions. He made this one in 1907 at Litzlberg on the lake's western shore, the same year he was at work on the golden portraits that made him famous. There is no gold here and almost no sky. The meadow of red poppies and white daisies climbs nearly to the top edge, packed flat like a tapestry and dabbed on in small strokes closer to French painting than to his Vienna work. Look for the fruit trees standing in the grass. Their trunks are so absorbed into the pattern of flowers that you can lose them completely.