Masters of Art Homage to Gustav Klimt Limited Edition 8 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 8 celebrates the crowning achievement of his later work, the Stoclet Frieze, drawing on fascinating details from this masterpiece in its design. In his rebellion against stereotypical concepts in art and society, Gustav Klimt was a pioneer of the avant-garde. He was driven to experiment with new, uncommon means of expression. In pursuit of this, he fused realistic representation, ornamentation and abstraction in a style that brilliantly culminated in the three-part frieze of the Palais Stoclet. The spectacular golden mosaic designed by Klimt for the 14-meter-long dining room of this private residence is one of his most ambitious artworks, and the one to which the Limited Edition 8 pays tribute. On the cap and barrel, a luminous white marble underlay sets off the solid Au 750 gold skeleton decoration of triangles, spirals and lines embellished by elaborate engraving techniques as well as mother-of-pearl, black onyx and jade inlays. This ornamentation takes its inspiration from the Tree of Life motif in the Stoclet Frieze. One of the three black Horus falcons that populate the branches of the tree in the frieze is immortalized on the solid Au 750 yellow gold cap in hand-engraved black onyx, adorned with a red ruby. The ornamental, color-filled areas of Klimt’s paintings are intoxicating, resembling a decorative carpet that absorbs everything except the faces and hands of the figures. Klimt took his design for the Stoclet Frieze to the Wiener Werkstätten to be brought to life. In an elaborate process, mosaic stones, glass, ceramics, chased gold applications and enamel plates were inlaid into large scale marble panels. The solid Au 750 yellow gold decoration of the Limited Edition 8 executed using jewelers’ techniques, transitions at the cone into a mosaic effect crafted from hand-engraved solid Au 750 yellow gold set with individually cut tsavorite, amethyst and citrine gemstones in a pattern borrowed from the base ornamentation of the Stoclet Frieze. The end of the cone is set with a green chrome aventurine, the color evoking spring, the season of new beginnings. As such, it was also the color chosen to symbolize the Secession at its founding in April 1897. In recognition of Klimt’s achievements for the Vienna Secession, the solid Au 750 yellow gold inlay on the barrel bears his Secession monogram with the initials GK. The building that housed the Vienna Secession was both an architectural manifestation of the new artistic concept and an exhibition venue for its affiliated artists. At the opening exhibition in 1898, Gustav Klimt presented his painting Pallas Athene, which offers an idealized image of the Secession itself. Since Athena is the goddess of both war and the arts, she is depicted launching the struggle for artistic freedom. The specially designed gold-coated clip of the Limited Edition 8 is another reference to Klimt’s Pallas Athene. The slightly curved lines ending in three spirals correspond to the decoration on the painting’s forged metal frame, which Klimt commissioned for his goddess. The spiral ornamentation, a typical motif found on Mycenaean gold jewelry, is a reference to Athena’s Greek homeland. Like a piece of jewelry, the writing instrument is adorned with a brilliant-cut diamond on each of the three clip spirals. The swirl is a visual element Klimt returned to in various works such as the Stoclet Frieze, where it forms the branches of the Tree of Life. In the Limited Edition 8, Klimt’s swirls inspired the hand-engraving on the solid Au 750 yellow gold forepart. The handcrafted solid Au 750 yellow gold, partly rhodium-coated nib celebrates the typical geometric patterns found throughout Gustav Klimt’s works in its fine engraving set with a brilliant-cut diamond. The nib also bears the number 4810, a reference to the height of Western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc, which embodies the high aspirations of Montblanc’s founding fathers. Like Gustav Klimt, the three Montblanc founders were passionate pioneers whose visions continue to shape the brand today.