Belvedere

When is your trip? The Lower Belvedere has a special Klimt exhibit until Sept. 7. My sister and I saw that earlier this year and really enjoyed it. If you are interested in Klimt and not just the Kiss, there are a lot of places to see his works throughout the city.

If your interests are more just to see his most famous work, than I would stick with just the Upper Belvedere. I suggest getting tickets for the opening time and getting in line early and heading straight for the Kiss. My sister and I had the room to ourselves for a good 5-10 minutes this past March.

Here is some info. on where to see more of Klimt:

https://www.wien.info/en/art-culture/art-nouveau/klimt-in-vienna-349890

Thanks Carrie. I thought the Klimt exhibition that ends on 7 Sept was more about his painting techniques, not so much a display of actual paintings. If that is the case, we would stick to the Upper Belvedere, but when I researched the lower Belvedere, there seems to be other paintings etc on display, not just Klimt. This is my fifth visit to Vienna, but the first time I have been interested in the art.

The Klimt exhibition at the Lower Belvedere had more of his paintings than I was expecting, including one of my favorites—the sunflower. If you scroll through the pictures here, you can see some of the other paintings also on display in the exhibit:

https://www.belvedere.at/en/gustav-klimt-pigment-pixel#:~:text=Gustav%20Klimt%20%E2%80%92%20Pigment%20%26%20Pixel%20%7C%20Belvedere%20Museum%20Vienna

And it was nice, because we were the only ones there. Well, except for one of the security guards. I remember my sister got in trouble for setting her bag on something she shouldn’t have.

There was also a nice exhibit on Slovenian painting, but it looks like that is no longer there.

There’s a good amount of Klimt in the Upper Belvedere. So, I wouldn’t necessarily go to the Lower unless you are a fan and would like to see even more. My sister is a huge fan and had us running all over the city to see his works. We both really enjoyed it. I was very impressed with the museums. I never felt overwhelmed or out of place.

Agree that timed entry to Upper Belvedere is the priority. The Lower Belvedere is worthwhile also, especially if there is a good special exhibit. That was so when we visited in ‘23 — an exhibit featuring Klimt — and that appears to be the case now until Sept. 7 as well. According to online sources, the Belvedere has 24 Klimt, many of which (but not all) are normally on display in the Upper. Currently 8 of their Klimt are in the Lower special exhibit, including the famous Judith and Holofernes.

Thank you everyone for your kind replies. I only became aware of Klimt at the Belvedere because of Carrie’s original post a month or so ago. On previous visits to Vienna it was more about coffee and schnitzels.

Carrie and others - How much time did you feel you needed to devote to the Upper Belvedere Klimt exhibit and how much time did you feel the one at the Lower Belvedere needed?

I ask because we'll be there in a couple of months, and I bought 9a tickets for the Klimt exhibition at the Upper Belvedere. We're then going to walk through the Gardens and I have tickets to see the Klimt exhibition at the Lower Belvedere. I'd like to peek at the interiors of St. Augustine and St. Michael's, then 1p reservations at Cafe Landtmann.

Thinking 1 hr Upper exhibition + 30 minutes of Permanent exhibit paintings.
20 minutes Gardens
30-45 minutes Lower exhibition

Do you have any advice or insight into this plan?

Please and thank you

muzak, The nice thing about museums is that you can spend as little or as much time as you like. It just depends on your interest. In looking at my pictures from that day, my first photo of the Kiss at Upper was at 9:02. My first picture at Lower was 10:37. We were focused on Klimt, so we didn’t spend too much time on other artists/exhibits. As we were there in March, there wasn’t much to see in the gardens, so we walked directly from Upper to Lower.

Your plan sounds reasonable to me. Unfortunately, most of us don’t have unlimited time when traveling. So, we have to make hard decision on what to see and do.

Have a great trip!