Gustav Klimt rented the attic-floor studio at Florianigasse 54 only for eight years. He used it alongside his main studio on Josefstädter Straße 21 to work on his large-format Faculty Paintings.

In 1898, Gustav Klimt had to rent an additional studio alongside his main studio on Josefstädter Straße 21, which he had moved into in 1890, to work on his commission for the ceiling paintings for Vienna University.

From 1894 to 1898, Klimt had worked on the commission for the Faculty Paintings in his studio on Josefstädter Straße, which he was still using together with Franz Matsch. When it came to executing the sketches he had created during this time, however, the rooms of the single-floor house in Vienna-Josefstadt, 8th District, proved too low to accommodate the monumental format of the Faculty Paintings, which measured 4.3 x 3 meters.
This prompted Klimt in 1898 to rent a temporary studio on the 4th floor of the joinery and furniture factory of Ludwig Schmitt at Florianigasse 54 (from 1906 number 50) in the 8th District of Vienna, in close proximity to his main studio. The painter affectionately called the attic-floor workspace his “altitude studio.” This term was likely a reference both to the studio’s situation on the top floor and to the height of the ceilings.

On account of his profession as an Imperial-Royal court carpenter, Schmitt moved in the same circles as Friedrich Paulick sen., who Klimt regularly visited at his Villa Paulick on the Attersee. Entries into the villa’s guestbook illustrate that Ludwig Schmitt, too, stayed there in 1894 and 1899. Thus, Klimt could have met the renowned cabinet maker Schmitt via the Paulicks before renting the studio in the furniture factory. From the turn of the century onwards, Schmitt increasingly produced Jugendstil furniture. For the World’s Fair in Paris (1900), for instance, he executed furnishings after designs by Joseph Maria Olbrich. It is believed that Klimt was close friends with the Schmitt family, and created designs for upholstery fabrics for his landlord.

Latest from 1900, Klimt spent most of his time working on the Faculty Paintings at his Florianigasse studio. In September 1900, he wrote to Maria Zimmermann:

“[...] as I am now working more out of the Florianigasse studio – tomorrow, I will finally start painting the large painting [NB: Medicine, 1900-1907], it is high time.”

In October 1900, he wrote to an unknown gentleman:

“I can be found every day from 10.30 am to 1 pm, and again from 3 pm to 6 pm, at my temporary studio in Vienna’s 8th District, Florianigasse 54, at the back in the courtyard, 4th floor.”

Gustav Klimt’s correspondence shows that he primarily worked out of his Florianigasse studio at least until 1907. Again and again, he asked acquaintances to meet him there or to write to him at this address.

Criticism and Stylistic Change at the Florianigasse Studio
Klimt worked for eight years on the three allegorical paintings: Medicine, Jurisprudence and Philosophy (1900–1907, destroyed in a fire at Immendorf Castle in 1945). Ludwig Hevesi reported that Klimt painted the enormous canvases using a ladder, which he kept climbing up and down. He further purported that Klimt was surrounded by thousands of scattered sketches and drawings.

The process of painting the Faculty Paintings, which Klimt carried out at his Florianigasse studio, proved difficult and time-consuming. He kept reworking the paintings, partly on account of his own dissatisfaction “[…] at present, Medicine is at a horrible stage, more smeared than painted [...],” partly owing to the harsh criticism from the university’s professors. When Klimt presented the still unfinished paintings to the public – Philosophy in 1900 and Medicine in 1901 – both works caused a veritable scandal. In 1905, the university decided not to use the ceiling paintings for the auditorium. This prompted Klimt to terminate his contract and to buy back his paintings. He continued to work on the paintings at the Florianigasse studio for a further two years. After their completion in 1907, Klimt left his temporary studio.

Klimt, who had rented the studio in 1898 as a renowned decorative painter with a public commission, left it in 1907 as a progressive, innovative painter of Modernism.