Masters of Art Homage to Gustav Klimt Limited Edition 161 Fountain Pen

Great artists throughout history have expressed the human experience in a universal language of form and beauty. The Montblanc Masters of Art Collection honors their eternal contribution to the quest for perfection in art – a quest Montblanc both celebrates and participates in. One artist whose vision helped shape Viennese Art Nouveau and the Golden Age is Gustav Klimt. The Montblanc Masters of Art Homage to Gustav Klimt Limited Edition 161 celebrates his famous work The Kiss and is dedicated to his love for Japanese art and culture. Gustav Klimt was driven to experiment with new, uncommon means of expression. In pursuit of this, he developed a fusion of realistic representation, ornamentation and abstraction that culminated in 1909 in his famous, almost mythical painting The Kiss. This painting reveals Gustav Klimt’s passion for East Asian art, which also overrides perspective in favor of ornament, color and harmonious curves. Ornamentation from The Kiss inspired the engravings on the solid Au 750 rose gold cone of the Homage to Gustav Klimt Limited Edition 161 and one part of the Ag 925 sterling silver cap. The two lovers lost in a kiss, the central motif of Klimt’s painting, are skilfully engraved on the cap. Klimt’s interest in Japanese lacquering techniques have influenced his work. He admired the decorative gold-adorned works of the Rinpa school, collected Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, Japanese ceramics and Noh masks,fusing their techniques with his own style. A gold-infused aura like the one that envelops the lovers in The Kiss, also surrounds the barrel of the writing instrument. In many works, Klimt mixed his paint with gold leaf, polished stones and mother-of-pearl. In The Kiss he blended gold leaf and oil gilding and even used platinum for certain sections. In the Limited Edition 161, the interplay of Ag 925 sterling silver and solid Au 750 gold is enriched by a green aventurine cabochon in the cone, the color evoking spring, the season of new beginnings. The slightly curved lines on the clip, which end in three spirals, correspond to the decoration on the forged metal frame of Klimt’s Athena painting. The spiral ornamentation, as a typical motif found on Mycenaean gold jewelry, is a reference to Athena’s Greek homeland. At the top of the cap in a solid Au 750 rose gold setting, the Montblanc emblem in mother-of-pearl commemorates the vision of the three Montblanc founders, whose ambitious goals, like those of Klimt, were as high as the glaciers crowning the Mont Blanc peak. The handcrafted solid Au 750 gold nib of the Homage to Gustav Klimt Limited Edition 161 is adorned with an artistic decoration of curved lines and spirals belonging to the typical geometric language used in many of Gustav Klimt’s works. A particularly splendid example can be found in the Tree of Life, which is part of the Stoclet Frieze completed in 1909. Entwined within the pattern on the nib is the sign for Phi, symbolizing the irrational number 1.61 with its infinite decimal places. It dictates the proportions of the golden ratio, which influenced the design of many of the world’s artistic masterpieces and provides many examples in nature. The engraving on the fountain pen and the creation of exactly 161 limited edition pieces pay tribute to this ideal measurement embodying harmony and aesthetics. The proportions between cap and barrel are also inspired by the golden ratio.