Gustav Klimt (1862-1918) is the one artist whose name we associate in particular with Viennese Jugendstil and the "Golden Age". As a sought-after painter of frescoes and the founding president of the Vienna Secession, as the portraitist of fashionable ladies and as an illustrator of unashamed eroticism, Klimt was both the enfant terrible and the darling of Viennese society, who created icons of art history with works like The Kiss and his portraits of Adele Bloch-Bauer.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, when Alfons Mucha went to the United States for four years as a lecturer, the world-famous poster designer, Art-Nouveau book illustrator, designer, photographer and painter was greeted with enthusiasm. Mucha is regarded as one of the most important representatives of Jugendstil; he knew how to move between the various genres more skilfully than virtually any other artist of his day. After training as a stage decorator in Vienna, Mucha travelled via Munich to Paris. There he created a stir in the 1890s with his stylistically refined and elegantly executed posters. These designs were not only his artistic breakthrough; they also revolutionised the aesthetic of what was still a new medium. Mucha's later works also demonstrated the inimitable "Mucha style," which celebrated floral elements, lines and beauty and which is lavishly illustrated in this book.