Italian horticultural landscape

Klimt reached Lake Garda at the end of July 1913 and stayed until mid-September, lodging with Emilie Flöge and her family near Malcesine, on the eastern shore. He had not gone far from home. The northern tip of the lake, with Riva and Torbole, still belonged to Austria-Hungary, and the frontier with the Kingdom of Italy ran across the water just north of Malcesine. That summer produced three canvases. Two are views of lakeside villages. This one stays inside a garden. Pink and white flowering shrubs fill almost the whole picture, and only along the top edge do a tiled roof and a few dark trees show where the garden ends. In May 1915 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, and the shore north of Malcesine became a front line.