This beautifully illustrated book introduces readers to the world of Gustav Klimt, a gifted and controversial artist determined to live life to the full during Vienna's golden era, the early decades of the 20th century. A world of great art, literature, and music, of heady successes and bitter failures, of lasting friendships and passionate affairs. Sumptuous, elegant, and often intensely erotic, his images of this world scandalized his contemporaries. Today they are among the most famous - and most valuable - images of modern art. Book jacket.