Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) is an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement.

Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art.

Klimt's primary subject is the female body and his works are marked by a frank eroticism.

In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he paints landscapes.

Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt is the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

Early in his artistic career, he is a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner.

As he develops a more personal style, his work is the subject of controversy that culminates when the paintings he completes around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna are criticized as pornographic.

He subsequently accepts no more public commissions, but achieves a new success with the paintings of his "golden phase", many of which include gold leaf.

Klimt's work is an important influence on his younger contemporary Egon Schiele.