Gustav Glows with Gold (Kathy Creamer, illus Patricia Ward, Little Pink Dog)

Kathy Creamer, co-founder of indie children’s publisher Little Pink Dog Books, lovingly introduces upper-primary readers to the captivating work of Austrian artist Gustav Klimt in her creative nonfiction picture book Gustav Glows with Gold, lavishly illustrated by Patricia Ward. Focusing on Klimt’s ‘golden phase’—a period that was relatively short but produced some of his most recognisable works—the book creates a whimsical world where ‘tiny flecks of golden fire’ in Klimt’s studio ‘shone and sparkled until they found a stillness, a breathless place to settle’. While the text assumes some familiarity with Klimt’s work and the use of gold leaf in painting, it is an enticing launching point for students to explore the artist further. The book’s lack of narrative tension may limit its re-read value, but the visual opulence will sustain the gaze of both child and adult readers. Ward’s baroque images pay fond tribute to the multi-layered energies of familiar Klimt works, with page spreads overlaid and ornamented by geometric motifs and golden swirls dancing from Klimt’s canvases through his studio and even into his cats’ fur. Like Ward’s Monet Chases the Light (written by Jenny Gahan), Gustav Glows with Gold doesn’t offer a comprehensive biography but a poetic essence of the magic of a particular artist.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Anica Boulanger-Mashberg is a freelance editor and writer, and a bookseller at the Hobart Bookshop. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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