Vienna around 1900—a fascinating period in which the metropolis on the Danube became an important center of modernity. Historicism, art nouveau and expressionism, were the defining styles, all of which resonated with a touch of typical Viennese morbidity. Artists such as Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann were united in their dream of forging a Gesamtkunstwerk, in which not only art, architecture and crafts, but also art and life itself were combined.
