The auditorium of the Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc in Rijeka, built in 1885 based on the project of the architecture studio Fellner & Helmer from Vienna, houses nine paintings by Viennese painters Gustav and Ernst Klimt, and Franz Matsch.
At the time, Gustav Klimt, one of the most famous painters of the Austrian Art Nouveau, was still known as a gifted student of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and a skilled decorator of numerous palaces for public and private use. The start of his career is closely connected with his younger brother Ernst and friend Franz Matsch, and together they founded the artist association Die Künstler-Compagnie.
The artists painted allegorical depictions of instrumental music, theatre, serious opera, poetry, love poetry, dance and comic opera ordered by the architecture studio Fellner & Helmer for the Rijeka theatre. Six oval paintings were attached to the ceiling on the ground floor around the sumptuous chandelier: three signed by Gustav Klimt, and three signed by Franz Matsch. The painting above the stage was signed by Ernst Klimt, and it is believed he also painted the two smaller ones above the proscenium boxes. Paintings from the auditorium are very important for the study of the lesser-known, early stages of Gustav Klimt's work. Although this period has always been overshadowed by his world-famous portraits and landscapes, these paintings are of global importance.
Created in a Viennese studio by a young group of artists, the paintings were completed in just a few months, but they were preceded by numerous studies and sketches. Although they were painted on linen canvases, the paintings still look like wall paintings made using the fresco secco technique. During the construction of the Vienna Ringstrasse, it was common to use canvas paintings as a substitute for wall paintings, as the slow and complex process of making a wall painting became impractical in the context of the rapid construction of public buildings of the time. For this reason, Gustav and Ernst Klimt, and Franz Matsch used a water-based binder to make the ceiling and proscenium paintings. They were not covered with varnish, so their surface is extremely dry and matte.
For many years, the paintings from the Rijeka Croatian National Theatre Ivan pl. Zajc were both known and unknown to the public. Hardly visible due to the height at which they were located, with extensive overpaint made during the 1978 conservation, as well as atmospheric impurities on their surfaces, they were perceived as dark with depictions that were difficult to identify.
Conservation of the paintings was carried out at the Rijeka Department for Conservation and the Department for Easel Painting in Zagreb of the Croatian Conservation Institute. In addition to a very complicated disassembly process, the work on the paintings included conservation and restoration research, removal of deposited atmospheric impurities and oil overpainting, stabilization of parts of the painted layer that was peeling and flaking, gluing the paintings to new canvases and placing them on newly made wooden frames specially made for the exhibition Unknown Klimt, which will be held in 2021 at the Museum of the City of Rijeka. Damage to the painted layer was filled with putty and retouched, and the paintings were not varnished, so as not to disturb the typical matte finish on the surface.
The paintings were presented to the public for the first and last time back in 1885 with a short exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Afterwards, they were shipped to Rijeka and immediately attached to the theatre ceiling. The paintings were presented and re-valorised in greater detail only 136 years later when they were disassembled, restored and presented to the public.