The Three Ages of Woman
The Three Ages of Woman was a canvas painting made in 1905, measuring 180*180 cm. Now it is collected in National Modern Art Gallery. Under the carpet dotted with flowers, the old woman in the left side was aging and her clear body contour, blood vessels in the arm, shriveled sagging breasts and plump abdomen all showed the life traces stay in the human body. But she imitated the pregnant woman, which more displayed the realistic vivid painting strokes. While the mother next to her was so young and still looked like a girl. Her body was stretched. Her hair was decorated with flowers and the transparent blue gauze wrapped around her legs and buttocks. She looked half asleep, or was likely to be immersed in love meditation and take the cute baby in her chest. The painting showed a woman growing process, from the baby to the beauty, then into an old woman. We all know how time flies; through the art process, the sadness of getting old seemed to be studded with crystal tears. The tears, once back to the reality, became a body with aging age and lost freshness.
The artist used the symbolism to condense the woman's life—three ages including childhood, youth and old age in a painting. This was an irreversible trilogy of life, showing the artist's sadness for the fate. Gustav Klimt was good at depicting the realistic characters with patterns to decorate the environment and clothing to achieve the beauty of variety, harmony and unity. This composition of the painting was similar to a cross with black in the upper block, which may show the fear for death and the painter's concepts of life and death.
