What happened to this painting?

This Klimt was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston during the infamous 1990 heist. It remains missing along with other masterworks, including paintings by Vermeer and Rembrandt.

When did Klimt paint this?

Klimt painted this in 1888 as a young academic artist. It predates his famous decorative style by about a decade; The Kiss wouldn't come until 1907-1908.

What does this painting show?

The painting shows an imagined view of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre during a performance, with spectators filling the galleries. The original Globe was demolished in 1644, so Klimt reconstructed its appearance from historical sources.

Where Is The Globe Theatre in London? Museum Location

Gustav Klimt completed this imagined reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in 1888, showing the Elizabethan playhouse filled with a colorful audience watching a performance on the central stage. The circular wooden structure rises in tiers of galleries while actors perform on the thrust stage below. Klimt depicted the scene with theatrical flair and historical imagination, capturing the energy of Renaissance drama.

This early work predates Klimt's famous decorative Art Nouveau style, showing him working in a more conventional historicist mode typical of late 19th-century Vienna. The painting was commissioned for the Burgtheater ceiling, part of a series depicting famous theaters throughout history. Tragically, this work hung at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum until its theft in March 1990; it remains missing along with other major works stolen that night.