The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze (L'Arbre de Vie)

Gustav Klimt

Tempera, watercolor, gold paint, silver bronze, chalk, pencil on paper (preparatory study)

Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK), Vienna

The Tree of Life, Stoclet Frieze (French: L'Arbre de Vie) is a celebrated work by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, created between 1905 and 1909 as a preparatory study for a monumental mosaic commission at the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, Belgium. The composition centers on a golden, ornamental tree whose branches spiral and undulate across the picture plane in intricate, curling forms—characteristic of Klimt's highly decorative approach and his signature use of gold leaf and gilded motifs. Rooted in the Art Nouveau and Vienna Secession movements, the work draws on diverse visual traditions including Byzantine mosaic art, Egyptian figural conventions, and Japanese printmaking. The panel is one of only three in the Stoclet Frieze series, which together depict the Tree of Life, a standing female figure, and an embracing couple, and the preparatory sketches are held in the permanent collection of the Museum für angewandte Kunst (MAK) in Vienna.