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 morbi dity. 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.