Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) was a Austrian symbolist painter mostly famous for his highly decorative paintings using gold leaf. Initially a very successful conventional painter of portraits and murals, he developed a more controversial and erotic style of painting influenced by Japanese art. I have been a huge fan of his since my teens. I adore the decorative style and the themes of life, sex and death that run through his work, so I decided to paint his portrait for the Portrait of an Artist exhibition. You can read more about him here:https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Gustav_Klimt