Considered the main figure of Austria's Art Nouveau movement, Gustav Klimt didn’t waste any time getting started. At just 14 years old, he earned a scholarship to the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts.

One of his famous works, the 1907 Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, made history when it was returned to the Bauer family from the Austrian State Gallery following a court battle and sold for $135 million - the most ever paid for a work of art at auction.

Painting aside, Gustav Klimt had two passions in life: cats and women. His love for the former meant that cats just roamed wild in his studios, causing chaos. As for the latter, Klimt is rumoured to have slept with every woman whose portrait he painted, fathering at least 14 illegitimate children.