Schloss Kammer on Lake Attersee III

“Arrived safely, forgot my opera glasses—need them badly,” Klimt reported to his sister Hermine in 1915 from his vacation home on Lake Attersee. The artist’s need during his summer vacation for optical aids—a telescope as well as opera glasses—becomes apparent from this painting: the lakeside facade of Schloss Kammer. Klimt probably captured it on canvas from the opposite shore using a telescope. The zoom effect causes the trees, the low front wing, and the red roof of the main building behind to appear as if on a single plane. With its softly out-of-focus reflections, the lake portion also appears to be part of the resulting two-dimensional image.

Credit: 1936 gift of Adele and Ferdinand Bloch Bauer, Vienna