The Imitation Game: Mother and Twins

“Mother with Twins”: A Nonexistent Klimt Painting

This is another image—a so-called “painting”—that appears quite often online. It’s usually referred to as Mother with Twins and is often attributed to Gustav Klimt. But let’s be clear: Klimt never made this painting. It doesn’t exist.

Whenever I mention this, reactions vary. Some people get surprisingly hostile, while others say they still find it beautiful. Fine—but as long as it’s not presented as something Klimt actually painted.

Let’s talk about this fake Mother and Twins. What you often see is a detail known as Mother and Child, which many mistakenly believe is a standalone painting. It’s not. It’s a cropped section from Klimt’s Three Ages of Woman. For some reason, many people dislike the older woman in the composition, so she’s cut out—and suddenly Klimt is praised for a painting he never made. But Klimt called it Three Ages of Woman, not Two Ages, and the presence of the older figure was essential to the work’s meaning. You may prefer it without her, but that’s not what Klimt intended. Unfortunately, the damage is done, and many are unaware that Mother and Child is only a detail.

Then it went even further. Suddenly, the mother appeared with two children—as if Klimt had painted twins. But this version is actually a photoshopped image. The child is mirrored to create the illusion of two. After some research, I even found the person who made it. I’ll add a picture in the comments.

Neither Mother and Child as a separate painting nor Mother with Twins appears in any of the major catalogues raisonnés of Klimt’s work. You won’t find them in museums either. They’re products of imagination—and of how the internet works. Repeat something often enough, and people start believing it.

Some time ago, I came across the backstory. The image was photoshopped around 2010 by a husband as a gift for his wife. She had red curls, and when they had children, they too had red curly hair—resembling the baby in Klimt’s original painting. It was meant as a private gift, but it ended up on Facebook. That’s how Mother with Twins began circulating. I made a screenshot at the time and have added it below my post.