Notes on the painting ISLAND IN LAKE ATTER by Gustav Klimt

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One of the most striking of Klimt's 'holiday landscapes', this painting of Lake Atter is noteworthy for the style in which Klimt has painted the surface of the water and, yet again, the use of the square format.

It has frequently been remarked that there is something reminiscent of Monet in the way that the light is reflected on the Lake's surface, but Klimt's treatment of the water as it stretches to the horizon is far more intense than any work by Monet.

Moreover, the painting is extremely clever in using both composition of the physical elements, the progressive treatment of light on the surface and the actual rippling of the water surface to draw the onlooker up through the painting to the island of the title: again, the square format lends to this, its effect heightened by the unusually high horizon which restricts our view of the island, the focal point of the painting, and thus introduces an extra element of mystery.