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.