Edouard Manet paints‘Le dejeuner sur l’herbe’.

Birth of Gustav Klimt, the second of seven children, in Baumgarten, near Vienna, Austria. His father is a gold engraver but earns very little. The family live in poverty.

Creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Paul Cézanne makes his first painting of the Mont Saint-Victoire. His later paintings have a great influence on Picasso and Matisse.

Unification of Germany and proclamation of William I of Prussia as German Emperor.

At the age of 14, Klimt enters the Vienna Arts and Crafts School. His two younger brothers, Ernst and Georg also study there.

Thomas Edison announces his invention the phonograph, a device for recording and replaying sound.

Emperor Alexander II of Russia assassinated.

Klimt, his brother Ernst and friend Franz Matsch form a partnership, ‘the Painters’ Company’, offering themselves as mural painters

First journey of Orient Express from Paris (via Vienna) to Istanbul.

Georges Seurat paints his ‘Bathers at Asnières’, applying his pointillist technique.

German engineer Karl Benz builds automobile powered by an internal-combustion engine

Vincent van Gogh paints his Sunflower works.

Wilhelm II crowned German Emperor.

Eiffel Tower completed – then the world's tallest tower.

The Painter’s Company are commissioned to create paintings for the stairwell of a new museum in Vienna.

Klimt becomes a member of the Co-operative Society of Austrian Artists.

Ernst Klimt marries Helene Flöge. Gustav makes his first pastel portrait of Helene’s sister Emilie, an accomplished artist and designer who is to become a lifelong companion.

Death of his father and brother Ernst. The Artists’ Company disbands. Klimt moves to a larger studio.

Klimt and Matsch are commissioned to decorate the ceiling of the Great Hall of the new University of Vienna. The proposed series of paintings, ‘Philosophy’, ‘Medicine’ and ‘Jurisprudence’, create a public outcry, and 87 professors sign a petition demanding that the commission be revoked. Klimt never accepts a public commission again.

Edvard Munch paints ‘The Scream’.

The Lumière brothers hold theirfirst public screening of projected motion pictures.

Wilhelm Röntgen takes first X-ray photograph.

Co-founder and the first president of the Vienna Secession, a group that broke away from the conservative artistic establishment, and promoted closer connections with the international avant-garde.

Klimt begins to make his first landscape paintings while spending the summer with Emilie by Lake Atter.

Tate Gallery founded.

The Secession presents its first exhibition, which is a great public success with more than 56,000 visitors. Klimt will remain at the centre of Secession activity until 1905.

His first painting for the University of Vienna, ‘Philosophy’, which provoked controversy when first commissioned, is exhibited at the Paris World Fair and wins the Grand Prix.

Klimt’s second painting for the University of Vienna ‘Medicine’ is shown at the tenth Secession exhibition and again causes a sensation.

Queen Victoria dies. Marconi transmits the first transatlantic telegraphic radio messages.

Klimt shows his ‘Beethoven Frieze’ at the Secession exhibition.

Completes ‘Portrait of Marie Henneberg’ a painting destined for the Villa Henneberg designed by Josef Hoffmann. This is their first collaboration on a domestic interior.

First electric typewriter produced. Coronation of Edward VII,British monarch.

Klimt travels to Ravenna and Florence and is inspired by Byzantine mosaics. Paints ‘Jurisprudence’.

Inspired by the British Arts and Crafts Movement, Josef Hoffmann, Kolo Moser and the industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer found the Wiener Werkstätte (Vienna Workshop), producing items such as jewellery, furniture, ceramics and clothes. They aspire to the ideals of the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’ – the total art work or synthesis of the arts.

Klimt paints ‘Water Serpents’ and is commissioned to paint the series of mosaic murals for the Palais Stoclet, an opulent private mansion in Brussels.

Henri Matisse and Andre Derain and others painting in pure bright hues share their first exhibition in Paris. A critic describes them as ‘Fauves’ (wild beasts) which became the name of the movement – Fauvism.

Several artists and Klimt himself resign from the Secession and form a new association called ‘Kunstschau’ (Artshow).

Klimt paints ‘The three ages of Woman’.

Meets Charles Rennie Mackintosh in London.

Picasso paints ‘Demoiselles D'Avignon’.

Meets Egon Schiele. Klimt's work is to have a decisive influence on Schiele.

Paints ‘Danae’, an erotic work depicting the conception of Perseus by Zeus, and the portrait ‘Adele Bloch-Bauer’.

Klimt paints ‘The Kiss’, in which he celebrates desire

The art movement Futurism launched by Italian poet FilippoTommaso Marinetti.

Klimt paints ‘Judith II’ and ‘Hope’ in which life and death are juxtaposed.

Travels to Rome and Florence, paints ‘Death and Life’.

Marcel Duchamp paints ‘Nude descending a Staircase’.

Balkan Wars begin.

Klimt paints ‘The Virgin’.

Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro- Hungarian throne, begins First World War.

Kasimir Malevich’s Suprematist style, characterised by works such as ‘Black Square’, reduces abstract painting to a previously unheard of geometrical simplicity.

The Dada movement is founded in Zurich.

Klimt paints ‘Baby’.

First World War ends. Execution of the Russia’sTsar Nicholas II and his family.

On January 11th, at the age of 56, Klimt suffers a stroke in his apartment and dies on February 6th from pneumonia.

Egon Schiele makes a last drawing of him in the morgue of the General Hospital.

Open daily 10.00–17.50.

Demand for this exhibition is expected to be high so Tate Liverpool is open until 21.00 (last admission 20.00) Tuesdays – Saturdays in August so you can visit during the long summer evenings. Advance booking is recommended.

£8 (£6 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 0845 600 1354, or buy tickets in person at the gallery. Advance booking is recommended.

For group visits call 0151 702 7400.

Free entry for Members, Patrons and individual children under twelve when accompanied by an adult. Find out more about Tate Membership and buy online now.

The exhibition catalogue: 'Gustav Klimt - Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900' is available for a special exhibition price of £19.99, saving £5 off the usual retail price.

A Klimt CD of music from the period is also available. Extracts are featured in this Guided Tour.

With views of the magnificent Albert dock, the Tate Café is open during gallery hours for breakfast, lunch and afternoon tea.

Thursday 26 June 2008, 18.00–21.00

Join us for a night of challenge, contradiction and opposition. Hear artists and designers debating the current integration of fine and applied arts and the persisting influence of Klimt for artists and designers who work in this way.

Follow a tour on Klimt’s early revolutionary years with the Viennese Secession by Dr. Christoph Grunenberg, Director of Tate Liverpool and co-curator of the exhibition. Sit in on a lively salon led by author and expert Ralf Bock on a Viennese movement founded by Adolf Loos that rivalled the Secession. At the end of the evening kick back and enjoy the lush but frenzied, tender and walzy classical sounds of singer songwriter Anna Silvera.

Thursday 28 August 2008, 18.00–21.00

Roll up for an evening of entertainment and enchantment. Sit in on an interdisciplinary salon on art and architecture with experts Professors Peter Vergo and Pamela Robertson on the connections and comparisons between the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain and America and the Wiener Werkstätte in Austria.

Follow a glittering tour of the exhibition led by Tobias Natter, renowned author and co-curator of the show on Klimt’s golden period. View the shimmering Klimt bio-pic starring John Malkovich and indulge in some fin de siècle scintillating cabaret in the form of artist Camille O’Sullivan, who comes to Liverpool fresh from the Edinburgh Fringe Speigeltent.

Thursday 31 July 2008, 18.00–21.00

Dissect and critique Klimt’s Wiener Werkstätte years in an evening of analysis and reflection. See a colourful re-inaction of the complex life of one of the major patrons of the Weiner Werstätte in a short play about Karl Wittgenstein.

Take part in a salon led by musicologists Peter Franklin and Gavin Plumley on the visual manifestation of music in Klimt’s work with particular reference to the Beethoven Frieze. Watch the fascinating documentary ‘Adele's Wish’ about the repatriation of Klimt’s work and hear a special performance from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Saturday 9 August 2008, 10.00–13.00

Drop-in space designed and run by young people for young people and their families. A themed experience exploring the magical world of Klimt through arts activities set in an enchanting theatrical environment.

Wednesday 28 May 2008 14.00–17.00

This is your chance to enrol in ArtPad - our summer project designed and run by Young Tate. Inspired by the magical world of Klimt, Young Tate is looking for new young people to design and run a themed, interactive and theatrical installation in the education studio this summer. The project blends an exciting range of training from set design, research and workshop leadership skills. No prior experience required! Drop in to meet the team and find out more.

Wednesday 11 June 2008, 16.30–18.00

Join us at this friendly and inspiring private event where you can view Tate's major exhibitions: Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900 for free, find out about related programmes and activities, attend introductory talks, pick up free resources and discuss what's coming up. Please book ahead to ensure a space.

Tuesday 12 August 2008, 10.00–16.00
Wednesday 13 August 2008, 10.00–16.00
Thursday 14 August 2008, 10.00–16.00

Join us at this friendly and inspiring private event where you can view Tate's major exhibitions: Gustav Klimt: Painting, Design and Modern Life in Vienna 1900 for free, find out about related programmes and activities, attend introductory talks, pick up free resources and discuss what's coming up. Please book ahead to ensure a space.

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